CDW, Hewlett Packard to repay $315,411 in schools’ technology restoration
Madison Board of Education approved settlement agreements with two firms to receive a total of $315,411.77 for costs incurred to restore network technology after a system crash on Memorial Day weekend.
“CDW Government Inc. and Hewlett Packard have determined that they will repay us in full for all costs in restoring the technology,” superintendent Dr. Dee Fowler said. CDW will pay $129,714. Hewlett Packard will pay $185,697.77.
In May, problems resulted when updates were installed for firmware (read-only memory, code and data) and virtual connections. After servers were shutdown and rebooted, the system lost connection to stored data.
During presentations, Dr. Brian Clayton and Carmen Buchanan reported on accepting the National Blue Ribbon School Award for Liberty Middle School in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 13-14. (Clayton was Liberty’s principal during the award application.) Only six Alabama schools were selected.
“Liberty and Homewood are the only two middle schools selected twice as Blue Ribbon schools,” Clayton said.
Dr. Camille Wright said the instruction committee is reviewing the “pedagogy of poverty” in teaching. By age 3, a child in poverty will have a deficit of 800 to 1,000 words in vocabulary, according to AMRT research (Alabama Reading, Math Test). For Madison City Schools, the gap has decreased for reading in math over the last three years. “Hopefully, due to the tutoring program,” Wright said.
“Poverty is growing,” board member Ranae Bartlett said. “We see the impact in our schools. Our team is focusing on those students to help close the gap. Our voluntary tutoring program worked and made amazing results.”
In other action, the board approved SKT Architects for renovations at Bob Jones High School. “Bob Jones is only 16 years old, but technology has changed the face of everything we do,” Fowler said.
The board approved independent contractor status for Charles Boyd, a junior at Bob Jones, for development of an iPad app for each Madison school. “You can click to see maps, schedules, iNow – everything associated with a school,” Fowler said. “The district gives an iPad to Charles as payment.”
“It’s amazing that we have a student in our midst that can do this kind of thing,” board member Phil Schmidt said.
