Letter to the editor: iPads are ‘exciting and necessary,’board members say

To the editor,

The Farmington School District is working on a plan to provide customized learning for every one of our students. A key part of that plan is putting a personal learning device is every student’s hands.

Those “learning devices” will be iPads.

We fully back this initiative. From our discussions, it appears that all of the other Farmington School Board members do as well.

There’s almost no question that iPads will start showing up in students’ hands this fall.

But some board members, both of us included, have questions about how fast we go. For instance, will every student have an iPad by the end of the next school year, or is it a better idea to phase in the iPads over two or three school years.

We have questions about finances and whether we are really ready to go all in the first year with curricula adapted to the iPads.

The district’s leadership has promised a financing plan that can stay within budget guidelines that were set before the iPads were being considered. That means no new taxes to pay for the iPads and no teacher layoffs to balance the budget to buy iPads.

Similarly, the district’s academic leadership says that our teachers want the iPads as soon as possible and that they will be ready to use them productively from the start

The iPads are an exciting and necessary step forward for our schools. Sharp questioning of our staff by school board members about how we do this is an important part of making sure that the board and our community can move ahead with confidence.

Tim Burke and Julie McKnight,

Farmington School Board members

Tags: letter to the editor, opinion, farmington