Let’s Talk Newton – Newton School District Director of Business Services Tim Bloom

Welcome to Say's Let's Talk. I'm Randy Vance. Today we're joined by the Director of Business

Services for the New School District, Tim Blue. Tim, thanks for spending time with us today

and had another school board meeting earlier this week and a couple of items that we want

to talk about. First off, some playground equipment for rural heights. Talk a little bit

about that. Yes, hi, Randy. We're looking to get new playground equipment. So, part of

it is part of the construction project where we're going to add a preschool playground

set, which will be on the lower level near the new circle drive that's being built for

those preschool students. And then in addition to that, we're going to build another playground

and replace the current playground, which is on the top area coming out of the school

there. So, that playground has seen its useful life and we're going to remove underneath

it. It has some issues with the padding and some of the things that have been there

for years. So, that is all going to be taken out and removed. And then we're adding a

place at the exact same one that we have at Thomas Jefferson that we purchased. So, it'll

be making things equitable and match. The sets will match and it'll be the same playground

sets at both sites. So, it'll be great for the kids and they'll just be more play area

there and it'll be less of a safety issue. And brought up the date. So, good deal.

You get to see all the bills that come across for these construction projects. Cross your

desk here. And how have we done on these construction projects? We've been pretty much...

Yeah, we've been right on budget for a lot of things. Right now we're coming up on the

big equipment purchases. So, we'll be bidding out equipment for the Aurora Heights project

and it'll be basically the furnishings for the new section of the building. So, it'll

include the kindergarten and preschool classrooms as well as the office area. So, it'll bring

all that up to date. I know right now they're looking at a plan to move teachers. So, that'll

be coming soon. So, we'll talk about that in the future. But right now it's getting all the

equipment ordered and built out and try to stay within budget. So, we're doing pretty well.

We do have contingencies built in for things that come up. I know that we're replacing some of

the flooring and some of the other stuff as part of the building. We should be actually taking

over the building here in April, the first or second week in April. We should be able to take

over and start doing some of the in the old section of the building. So, we'll be replacing carpet

going through those old areas that need to be refreshed and then getting furniture moved and

getting classroom set up for the next year. So, how close are we going to finish with that

building before classes start in August? Or hope in August first. So, the goal is to get it the

first week of August or shortly thereafter. So, we're trying to get everything aligned. I know

they're working really hard on it. They're getting some of that areas ready. I know we're working

on furniture for the kitchen area. So, we've got that approved and they're trying to figure out

placement of everything and make sure all the outlets and everything's set and it's just on to

the next day. Is most of the stuff inside now? I don't know where our heights are. We're still a

little mercy of the weather here with rain and stuff. Yeah, there's still parts in the building.

There's still open windows. So, I know they're still putting in windows and some of that's still

open, but we're hoping to get it all enclosed and everything should be up to date and they'll just

continue to work on it. So, I know the part that's going to probably take the longest is that

office area. I'm so they're kind of building toward that and then that'll be the last phase out.

It'll probably be the office area which won't affect the students, but again, it'll affect people

coming in and out of the building. So, that whole neighborhood's going to be effect. You know,

they've had kids around there for a while. So, when people are headed out for work and stuff,

you know, kind of, you know, young look out for kids and buses and stuff in that area again.

Yeah, it'll be great. It'll be different change for them. We purchased some Chromebooks and some

Internet service at the meeting this week, right? Yep. So, this week we did our, we approved our

Internet, which is our least dark fiber with MCG. So, we expanded that and signed that this is

for a 10-year agreement, which is great. MCG has been a great partner for our schools.

This is our, we have the, there's two pieces of the Internet. There's the Internet itself

and the way in, which is the White Area Network. And then this is the least fiber part that we

lease as well. So, there's two separate parts of that. So, it's nice working with one company

and having it all under the same umbrella and having everything operational and everything

works. You have one company to call. They've been great to work with our schools. So,

the Chromebooks, we're looking to purchase 875 Chromebooks. So, right now that'll go down to,

it'll start basically at kindergarten and first grade and second grade and fifth grade were the

grade sections that we're looking to replace. The devices that we had for kindergarten and first

grade were iPads and they've, they're near at the end of life. So, they're probably maybe worth

another year, but it was coming time that we needed to do something there. So, our technology

director Shane met with the teachers and instructional coaches to review what was needed and

we still need one to one devices for testing and some of those things. So, that's what we're going

to do is move forward with that and if legislation changes and they're limited to an hour a day and

things like that might happen, we'll be able to do that and still have the devices and

we still use it for curriculum. So, it'll be probably a change coming for that, but we'll see,

we'll deal with the changes when they kind of happen. So, what do you do with the old iPads?

They'll probably go to, in the past, we've done a community thing where people can go online

and buy them. So, then we do, we work with a partner or a company and they'll give us a dollar

amount per device and if they don't sell, we'll get, I think we get a different, it's just discounted.

So, I think it's two or three hundred dollars or whatever. So, we get per device. So,

we're looking at that and then in addition to that we need to do something with our staff laptops

it's our rotation. So, we usually do a school each year. So, it's usually elementary and then

middle school and then high school teachers and then a year off. So, this was our year off we didn't

do any. So, this year I think we're working on getting the elementary level devices. So,

we're working on that for teachers. So, that'll be coming up along with some of the other

network infrastructure that we need at Thomas Jefferson and Aurora Heights as part of the

building improvements. Those are not part of the construction cost, but we have it in our

construction budget for technology. So, that'll just be funded a little differently. So,

Well, thanks for spending time with us today. We appreciate it. Yes, thank you, Randy.

That's Tim Bloom, the Director of Business Services for the new school district joining us on

today's Let's Sock Newton. If you miss any of our Let's Sock programs, you can find them online

daily at caninecareless.com or wherever you subscribe to your podcast. Again, that's today's Let's Sock Newton.