Cascade School District voters passed a three-year tech levy in February of 2016. Collections on that will not come in until a year from now, as people pay their property taxes. So explained Cascade School District Business Manager Dwight Remick, at the May 9 Cascade School Board meeting.
“That being said, working very closely with Kirk (Sunitsch) and the Tech Committee, we are trying to develop plans that will put us ahead of schedule on what needs to be done. We realize when we did the major tech levy several years ago, we front-funded everything and replaced everything at one time,” Remick said. “It’s created kind of bow wave. The equipment that we bought at that time is also wearing out at the same time. We’re trying to develop a plan that takes into account replacement cycles, so a certain amount gets replaced every year.”
The equipment purchased five years ago will be replaced when the new buildings, Alpine Lakes and Cascade High School, are constructed. There are pots of money to replace the teacher’s stations and the labs, Remick said.
Those will be falling into a cycle, he said, so they are making sure to develop a plan for replacement that will be in place for years to come.
“That is one of the key things we’ve been working on behind the scenes, so as we move forward, we have a plan that is not only for this year, but the next year. A lot of funding from the tech levy is going to be used to make sure Discovery, Beaver Valley, IRMS also have the same technology as the new buildings,” Remick said. “You’re going to see a lot of money going toward making sure we have equity across the district.”
The new buildings will have security cameras, card lock systems and cell repeaters. Remick said they need to make sure that same technology is going into the older buildings.
One of the key things that popped up, he said, is with all the construction work going on this summer, a lot activities will be shifted to Icicle River Middle School, because the high school gyms will be out of commission.
“Is there a way to use the expenditures we planning for safety and implement those now, so we can gain cost savings or increased security?” Remick said. “The primary one that came to mind, when we sat down with the vendor that is going to provide all the camera systems. He also looked at the layout of IRMS. Same system. Here’s where the cameras need to be placed.”
Remick said he asked if the vendor could install the cameras this summer, but that was out of the question. But if they were serious, the vendor said he could do it in May.
“Teresa (Disher, facilities manager) and I stepped back and talked about this possibility. We met with Mike Janski (IRMS principal.) We are moving forward with that. It was tied to a state contract, so the bid pricing was arranged a year ago when we chose this vendor, so we don’t have to go through a formal bid process. It is already in place,” Remick said. “They’re going to be able come in and put those cameras in during the month of May so that we have a way to monitor the building, not only during the summer when we have the activities shifted, but next year when we have all the activities going on too.”
Remick said he wanted to make sure the board was aware of this. Even though they don’t have the levy money yet, he said they have the ability to borrow from themselves, basically from the bond money.
“We’ll front-fund this project based on that. Then, as the tax collections come in, we’ll replace that money,” Remick said. “We’re looking at key items like that, and maybe the cardlock system being done early at IRMS. That one right now we don’t even know who the vendors are from the other two buildings.”
There is a project for the bus barn, he said, to put a repeater up the Chumstick to improve the coverage for the two-way radio systems on the buses. Remick said they want to implement that one this summer.
The current base station at the bus barn is antiquated, he said, so they are gong to move that to the district office and use the new system, the same kind the county road department is using.
“All three of the new buildings are going to have a system called Extron, which is panel within the wall that will control the speakers, projector and the interface for the teacher’s learning station in each of the new classrooms,” Remick said. “That also needs to be put in at Discovery and IRMS. Same thing for Beaver Valley.”
He said they are also installing dark fiber between all the buildings owned by the school district. Once that is done, Remick said they will not have to pay for the connections between buildings.
“When we put together this master list of what we want to accomplish from a safety perspective...the first two years of the four year levy, the dollar amount we’re planning on at this point...we’re looking at $150,000 per year for the first two years that will designated for safety improvements,” Remick said. “The other $200,000 would be focused on technology.”
When they get to years three and four, Remick said they are kicking around $25,000 for safety and everything else for technology. Technology includes not only the replacement cycle of the equipment, but also tech training and support, he said.
“Those are things we are working closely with the tech committee, making those plans ahead of time, having timelines and points of reference to know when to pull the trigger on these. Since we are moving forward on some of things,” Remick said. “We are doing it on cost savings and safety perspective. We’re taking advantage of things we have in place right now that will bring us a benefit sooner rather than later.”
From the feedback with staff, Remick said they will look to replace the student devices as soon as possible. The staff devices can wait and work into a rotation. With all the assessments done on computers, Remick said it was important to update the student devices right away.
“I think we’ll see some real movement toward figuring out how to implement that. That will be part of the budget process. We hope to order devices that will be here for the start of the school year,” Remick said. “Typically when we have levies like this, we start budgeting four months prior to the money coming in. But since we have resources to be able to do that without going out to borrow it, the cost savings will exceed an expenditures.”
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.
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