When voters mark their ballot this month, either approving or denying the high school technology levy, the impact at Park High will be obvious. After last year's levy failed by 10 votes, teachers say that the school's equipment is fast falling behind what is needed to serve students. CTE teachers have computers that are too outdated or not powerful enough to run the programs they use in their classes. Student demand to borrow laptops has also far exceeded the number of devices available for the school to loan. Both of these needs would be addressed if the tech levy passes. There are a lot of reasons for a tech levy right now, there are three teachers right now that could use it: Reid Lende, Kate Lende, and Hunter James. They all have strong opinions and points on why we would need a tech levy.
Mrs Lende said, “We are looking to replace laptops that are loaned out to students”. The reason behind that is because most of the laptops are over five years old now and are used multiple times a day so they get a lot of wear and tear. With the current funding we have now we were able to get six new laptops to replace broken ones, said Mrs Lende. Also there are only 120 chromebooks we are able to hand out to students but the need is way higher than that. Then it goes back to the Laptops that can be loaned out in the library. This school year through the end of march, the library has loaned out over 3,000 individual laptops, said Mrs Lende.
Industrial Technology teacher Hunter James could use the tech levy just as much, because his computers are so outdated they can barely run and keep up. “Our computers are 11-12 years old and can’t even update to Windows 11,” said James. He has a lot of classes that he teaches that are all on computers, so that's a big problem. The program would lose AutoCad and SolidWorks because they won't be able to run next year without Windows 11, said Mr James. So, if he can’t get new computers he would be losing at least two classes next year, and who knows how many he could lose in the next couple of years. “We need new computers. We could have used them a few years ago,” says Mr James. A lot of kids like to take his classes, and soon they might not be able to take them if they don't get the new technology.
Business teacher Reid Lende also has a really good reason for the tech levy. He said he could use the money for buying new computers in his room. He has five new computers already, and those are the only ones that can run the new Adobe programs used for Multimedia Journalism and Digital media Production and some photo classes. He is looking to get at least 19 new computers for his classroom so they could all run the new Adobe programs, and also new monitors to go along with the new computers; new setups for the classroom that would be really useful for the students, because they can do more with the new equipment. The computers that Mr Lende has right now are still working, but they are just not the best computers to be doing the type of stuff his classes require to do.
These are all reasons for a tech levy. Teachers need to update equipment to better serve the students. All of them have the same general idea: either the computers are outdated or there are not enough devices to meet the demand. As more classes rely on technology to complete and submit assignments, it is important for the school to provide adequate access to the tools they need to be successful.