Butler school board talks about technology
The Butler School Board sounded abuzz with new school technology during its Monday night meeting.
The board watched kindergarteners command robots, discussed allowing board members to cast votes remotely and heard a presentation on students using cell phone apps to buy snacks in the cafeteria.
Students from Jeanie Cornell's kindergarten class started the board's night with a demonstration of bee-shaped robots they've been using to begin easing into programming. The students used buttons on the bots to dictate a route through a grid, and the machines rolled along how the children requested.
The board also discussed adjusting its remote participation policy, which currently only allows votes to be cast via speaker phone to establish a quorum or for budget-related matters. Some worry was expressed that loosening the rules might lead to future neglect of duties.
“Right now we don't have a problem of habitual absentness,” said board member Suzie Bradrick. “But we have in the past.”
The Nutrition Group, which handled cafeteria sales for the district, reported expansions to a la carte food sales in various districts. The company is expanding sales by a cell phone app which board members compared to similar grab-and-go programs at Panera and Starbucks.
Board members also voted unanimously to increase substitute teacher pay from a sliding scale of $80 to $95 per day up to a flat $100 daily rate.
“We need substitutes,” Superintendent Brian White said. “We are short. We're critically short some days.”
White reported that, according to his review of the school's policy, drug testing is not currently demanded for school trip participation. The board plans to reexamine this aspect of the policy.
Members went into an executive session for more than 30 minutes, and one parent from the audience was called in to speak with the board. White said they discussed school safety, personal student matters and legal proceedings during the closed-door meeting.
