With school out, the St. Mary’s board of education is sitting back and relaxing and looking for something, anything to do. Uh, not so much.
Despite the summer break, there are summer sports camps, division of instruction, Lunch & Learn, summer school, studies review and performance, construction and refurbishing, and soon new teacher orientations.
“We are probably busier in the summer at central office,” Superintendent Scott Smith said, “than any time of the year.”
And at the school board meeting held June 26 in Leonardtown, the board tackled student cellphone use and a systems contract.
Smith said cellphone work groups have been held June 13 and earlier in the day June 26 with staff from central office, principals, school staff, parents and students.
He said a survey — including questions regarding cellphone usage — that was sent out at the end of school has generated “thousands” of responses and the plan is to push the survey out again in the near future.
“We’re talking about just the overwhelming amount of data that demonstrates that cellphones, while an extremely productive technology tool that makes us feel connected to others and secure, is a real challenge in all high school, middle school and some elementary school settings,” Smith said during his superintendent’s remarks.
Smith noted Florida and New York City public schools have banned cellphones, “So it’s really the right time to be talking about it.”
Calvert County also recently banned the use of cellphones during the school day, and Smith said, “We’ll probably follow a similar suit.”
He said of parents, “We need to come up with a workable plan to help them feel comfortable if their child doesn’t have their cellphone with them every second of every single day in the schools.”
Smith said students sometimes use their phones for more nefarious purposes such as taking and sending photos and accessing sites that would be off-limits during the school day, “but perhaps more importantly, it’s recognizing that while the school system has a wireless robust system, if you have a child who brings in their own personal cellphone on their own personal data plan and the parents don’t have any restrictions on it, that’s unfettered access to anything that’s out there in the world, and that’s going to be one of the things we’ll be talking about.”
Board OKs system upgradeThe board of education also approved a contract to CustomTech LLC in the amount of $954,000 with a contingency of $46,000, to perform a systemwide building automation system controls upgrade.
“As we are upgrading our facilities and spending money on camera systems,” Smith said, “at a certain point you have to look at how you’re putting them all together. And this is a product where we can use all this at the same time.”
The board also approved the use of the contract, which could last until 2029, for system installations, repairs and maintenance.
The new system, which Director of Maintenance Joseph Beavers said would take about a year to implement, could be used to control and troubleshoot such things as lighting and HVAC from the central office or home.
“The problem is we have decades-old equipment,” said Beavers, who added the current system uses five servers, each requiring its own username and password.
“We’re getting it done, but it’s a struggle with our current system,” he said.
Beavers said a request for purchase was issued May 3 to potentially 1,700 vendors, with just one — Charlotte Hall-based CustomTech — submitting a bid.
School board member Jim Davis asked Beavers what his comfort level was with CustomTech, being the only bidder.
“Anytime we have to call an outside source for repairs it’s always double or triple than CustomTech,” Beavers said. “We felt pretty comfortable that this was a pretty good bid. It is a lot of money and the unfortunate thing is it’s not something we’re all going to stand back after it’s done and take a picture of when it’s over with. It’s one of those things that if you don’t hear about it, it’s working great.”
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