School board okays Chromebooks, hiring

The Wahkiakum School District Board of Directors were called for a special meeting on Monday to address the purchase of 165 Chromebooks and to approve the hiring of new teachers.

Superintendent Bob Garrett asked Paul Ireland, who provides tech support at the school, to give the school board an explanation of the Chromebook project.

“We had discussed that smaller 11 inch Chromebooks are a bit on the small side for daily productivity in a few staff meetings,” Ireland said. “Everybody seems to like the 13.3 to 14 inch Chromebooks. The ones we’ve selected do have slower processors but a comparable amount of memory.

"Price wise, these actually compare directly to a lot of the 11 inch Chromebooks on the market. A larger screen and a more comfortable work area is what drove the choice. We want to add engraving to keep them out of pawn shops.”

“So these fall within the scope of the technology program that we originally started?” School Board member Tina Schubert asked.

“Actually it slightly diminishes it,” Ireland replied. “We were anticipating laptops instead of Chromebooks but it’s hard to get laptops that cheap.”

The purchase of $50,000 worth of Chromebooks, engraving and a Chrome OS Management License was approved by the board.

The board was then asked to approve teaching contracts for the 2015-16 school year.

“Would there be any problem if these were held for the regular meeting?” Schubert asked.

“I guess I don’t know why we would do that,” Garrett said. “I’m trying let people know whether or not they are going to be employed.”

“That’s the reason we called a special meeting?” Schubert asked.

“I don’t know if I would have called a special meeting just to do this,” Garrett said, “but given that we wanted to get going on the Chromebooks, it just made sense to me to get it done.”

The board approved four contracts.

Corissa Blix and Mike Thomas are returning staff members. Sue Garn, who has acted as a substitute will pick up .200 full-time equivalent position (FTE) to teach an art class.

Ryan Garrett, the new middle school science teacher will join his family at Wahkiakum School District including his father, Superintendent Bob Garrett, and brother and Athletic Director, Rob Garrett.

Director Paula Culbertson, Principal Theresa Libby, Principal Stephanie Leitz and teachers Jeff Pillar and Audrey Petterson conducted the interviews. According to Superintendent Garrett they only received eight completed applications and interviewed five candidates. The positions were listed in the Wahkiakum Eagle and at wateach.net. Garrett said that each position was viewed more than 300 times.

“I don’t know if they are waiting for later in the summer but finding teachers that want to come to rural districts can be difficult,” Superintendent Garrett said.

“It’s too bad that Ryan’s last name isn’t Schmetlef,” Culbertson said. “Then that way there wouldn’t be a perception of a conflict. I’m a pretty much tell it like it is person. He interviewed very well and I think he’s got an energy level that we would all benefit by.”