Trustees hope investment pays off in better scores

By Rupert Howell
Standardized test scores for South Panola must have improved over the previous year, but South Panola Superintendent Tim Wilder was mum and would not be specific at Tuesday’s monthly meeting of the district’s board of trustees.
The subject arose as Financial Director David Rubenstein estimated the district’s expenditures would be around $200,000 to $300,000 over budget. Wilder noted the amount is considerably less than the $900,000 earlier predicted when trustees voted to spend that much for approximately 2,000 Chromebook computers and software that several other school districts had used to improve testing results.
Although the purchases were not budgeted, board members approved the request knowing the difference could be absorbed with a budget amendment using funding from other areas.
During Rubenstein’s financial presentation he mentioned the purchase stating that trustees, “…will see that money well spent in the long run,” causing eyes to fall on Wilder.
Wilder explained that although administrators have individual student test scores, he has no way of knowing how schools will be ranked and how those doing the ranking will use the data. The information is embargoed from the public until later this fall.
The mass Chromebook (laptop computer) purchase was initiated when longtime trustee Lygunnah Bean during an early fall meeting last year, urged that the district find a way to supply all students with computers. Previous testing problems included the fact that students were unfamiliar with devices they were using taking the test.
During the following month’s meeting, Superintendent Wilder invited District Technical Director Jay Sandlin to discuss how the district could best satisfy as many computer needs as possible with the board later adopting Sandlin’s proposal. The district has lost only one of the 2,000 Chromebooks during the year. Assumed to be stolen, the district has the ability to make the computer inoperable as the operating systems are located on a “cloud”.
School rankings and test results will be made public in late September or October.