Technology Budgets/Planning

[Baules@AOL.COM]

In response to queries in the last couple of days on how to allocate
technology funds:
   In having discussed this issuse in my district quite a lot recently, I
have come to the conclusion that each school should be given a foundation
level of support. On top of this, each school should be given additional
funding on a per pupil basis. I have been in a district that was budgeted
along the per capita basis, and the smaller elementary schools could never
quite get enough money to purchase what they needed. The larger schools had
more than enough.
    I have also been in a district that split all funds equally even though
the student populations varies greatly. This is not fair either (not that
fair is realistic), but a blend of the two is important. An example is that
each library will need to be automated, a rather fixed cost immaterial of the
size of the student body. However, each library should also have a number of
machines for drop in users. The latter need will be more influenced by the
number of students.
Steve Baule
Glenbrook South High School
Glenview, IL
708-486-4560
Baules@aol.com