Macs under fire in South Kitsap (WA) School
District
This article has been edited to protect the innocent.
You can reach the author at <south.kitsap@reformed.net>.
I read the articles about the Grand Rapids Schools trying
to go to PC only and I couldn't help but relate to the
problems in Grand Rapids. The South Kitsap (WA) School
District, where I live and where my wife teaches, is going
through the same horror. I hope sincerely you could
investigate what I have to say.
The school board here is allowing one person to do all
recommendations for technology for the entire district. The
job she has allows her, and only her, to make decisions as
to how the flow of technology hits our school system. She
then recommends to the school board what course to follow,
which they follow - believing unbiased research has been
done. She formed a committee to vote on which computer
platform would be the district standard. Interestingly
enough, Macintosh users were not significantly represented.
Furthermore, many teachers were unaware that a decision on
standardization was even being considered, until the final
decision was handed down. Thus, the committee voted that PCs
would be the standard, but that exceptions could be
made.
In practice, Macintoshes have been all but outlawed in
the school district. A majority of teachers here have
Macs at home and use the existing Macs at the school all the
time. The district won't put any money toward any new Macs
unless you "have a really good reason." Having all of your
schoolwork on a Mac, all of your research and grade books on
a Mac, having nothing but Mac peripherals and printers, and
having Macs at home for most of the teachers of a
department, are not good enough reasons. The district has
told us that they would no longer support our need for a
Macintosh computer in the district. They would like us to
pick a PC for the use of the department. You see, there's
plenty of money to be spent on computers here, just not
Macs! I believe this is borderline illegal!
Anyway, sorry for my ramblings, but I'm a bit flustered
about all of this and would very much like something to be
done. Can you help in any way? We are dying here of PC
infiltration. Their reasoning is unfounded. "It costs too
much to have more than one platform in the district," and,
"Macs don't have as much software," have been two of their
excuses.
Who needs 12,000 types of word processors anyway?
Our district is the largest district and has the largest
high school north of California and west of Idaho. All of
this has been brought to fruition by one person whom the
school district appointed as Director of Curriculum,
Assessment and Learning Technology, otherwise known as the
"ruler of technology" for the district.
If you wish to voice your opinions or tell the
appropriate people what you think of their plans for the
South Kitsap School District, you can get all of their email
addresses from this site: <http://www.skitsap.wednet.edu/directory.html>
After all, its all done with taxpayer money, and it's all
a matter of public record here - Just wear waders!
Please, this is not a call to spam or flame the Director
of Curriculum, Assessment and Learning Technology, board of
education members, or anyone else involved in this
decision.
Gone fishing for the summer, 6/13/00.
"Even on the Macintosh, where things are generally considered to be
easier, Murphy's Law seems to work overtime."
Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work
for all. Computers are like that. Please report errors to
Dan Knight
.
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