SALEM – Members of SAD 58’s Board of Directors watched Mt. Abram High School students and math teacher Brian Twitchell demonstrate the school’s new electronic white board Thursday evening.
The board, which cost approximately $5,000, was purchased by Twitchell earlier this year with money from donations and from the sale of some of his tests and quizzes, Superintendent Quenten Clark said. By the end of the school year, the district hopes to purchase four or five of the electronic white boards, which allow students to do calculations, import data and send classroom work to other rooms.
Thursday’s demonstration was “pretty impressive,” Clark said.
In other business, board members voted to allow Phillips School eighth-graders to take their eighth-grade trip to Quebec and to allow Strong eighth-graders to travel to Portland.
They also voted to restrict all eighth grade trips to a radius of 300 miles from SAD 58. Clark said he expects the decision to garner some controversy. The decision was based in part on concerns about high fuel prices, he said. Already, the school system uses 110,000 gallons of heating oil per year, and 35,000 gallons of diesel fuel, Clark said.
“If the price goes up one penny, that’s $11,000,” he explained.
The board’s decision was made in an effort not to put “a burden on the local businesses” to pay for excess transportation costs, Clark said.
Prior to the meeting, the board held a public hearing regarding the upcoming referendum in November asking voters to approve a further $150,000 on an addition to Stratton School. Board members had voted to request the additional funds after building prices skyrocketed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
No one attended the hearing.
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