Greetings all, Sitting in on the M$ meeting and E2T2 Meeting here In Storm Lake.
Here is my soapbox, observation, ranting and whatever else you care to call it, on the Microsoft Settlement Money. HS gets $203 per pupil. of the $101.50 has to be spent on software (Most eligible software is Microsoft) $101.50 gets to be General Purpose Vouchers (this is the hardware section) of that, $30 is to be spent on Professional Development That leaves roughly $70.00 Here is the kick in the shorts. IF you choose a goal strand that is 21st Century Skills related, then the assessment tool is the IEOC costing around $40 per student. So that leaves a whopping $30 per student for hardware. I know there are waivers for PD and There might be other assessments available, but the "Example" that John O gives is this one, and personally, that to me is only slightly more attractive than a kick in the shorts. Here is my next issue Many districts are cash strapped right now. I know that my district is going to have to bond $800,000.00 for cash reserves next year. We have very little left. All items must be purchased, then sent to John O who after he gets 200 voucher receipts will send them to Russ Consulting, who say okay and send you a voucher, you send it to MS along with your receipt, then they send you a check. This sounds like a process similar to collecting maple sap in Iowa in January. We still do not know how much administrative overhead there is for this process, how we report or even what we report out. Two groups are really benefiting from this deal and that is Russ Consulting and The Individual consultant for the DE (And you may or may not know who that is) End rant, end soap box. Respond if you like, if it gets too bad we can go off list. Happy Friday all. Lance Lennon District Technology Director Eagle Grove Community School District --- [This E-mail scanned for viruses by Declude Virus on the server aea8.k12.ia.us] --------------------------------------------------------- Archived messages from this list can be found at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ ---------------------------------------------------------
