School trustees to get netbooks

Kalispell school board trustees’ new netbooks will make their debut at Tuesday’s board meeting.

The district purchased the miniature laptop computers to eliminate the vast amount of paperwork each trustee receives monthly.

The Toshiba computers cost $369 apiece, information technology director Richard Lawrence said. The district bought at least 11 of them — one for each trustee — for a total of a little over $4,000.

Money for the netbooks came from the district’s forest reserve technology fund, not the general fund, district clerk Todd Watkins said.

Forest reserve money is based on how much lumber the state of Montana produces. Historically, Kalispell Public Schools has used forest reserve money for technology purchases at the district level, including servers, cell phones and fiber optics.

Last year the school board rejected a nearly $9,300 proposal to purchase laptops for 10 of the 11 trustees.

That purchase would have been made with forest reserve money at a cost of about $928 per computer. One trustee preferred to use her own laptop.

The board decided against the purchase in July 2009, citing concerns about how the public might perceive such a large purchase for the board.

The board was particularly worried in light of building reserve and technology levies the district anticipated running that fall; voters in November 2009 approved a $2.8 million elementary levy request but rejected the $4.1 million high school issue.

Some trustees argued last year that the laptops would provide better organization and greater consistency for future board members. That argument still holds true, as trustees described monstrous stacks of school district-related papers at home and in their offices.

Because the netbooks are less expensive than they were a year ago — and are using a more reliable processor than last year’s models, according to Lawrence — they were an option the board was comfortable with.

Lawrence and Watkins estimate that the netbooks will pay for themselves after just three months of school board meetings, compared to the cost of paper, printing and the roughly day and a half it takes to create and assemble board packets.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.