Technology a few votes away for Washington County

By COLLIN BROOKS
Staff Writer
Washington County Director of Schools Kimber Halliburton will ask the Washington County Budget Committee during their Wednesday morning meeting to approve some of the allotted school technology fund of $640,000 to go towards 34-61 ClearTouch Interactive Panels. Halliburton will also ask that some of the money go towards fufilling the promise to English and Language Arts teachers in the county for infusing their classrooms with Chromebooks.

If approved, Halliburton said that she would order the panels in the next two weeks, with hopes of getting them into the classrooms as quickly as possible.
If 61 panels are ordered — at a cost of $7,200 each — that would place one in all third and fourth grade classrooms in Washington County. However, if the complete order cannot be made, then Halliburton said she and the Washington County Board of Education would have to make a decision as to which grade would receive the technology.
A third grade classroom at Ridgeview is currently the only technology demonstration classroom in the county. Halliburton said that any other school that would like to jump on the order with their own funding from Parent and Teacher organizations are more than welcome to, because full implementation of technology is a long and expensive process.