Technology Center Visit III Bulloch County Board of Education Date of visit: Thursday, January 17, 2013 Person

Interviewed: April Beasley (abeasley@bulloch.k12.ga.us) The Bulloch County Board of Education is housed in the old William James School building on Williams Road in Statesboro, Georgia. The actual technology for the school system is in each of the individual schools. The schools in the system contain lots of technology. Schools that are included in the Bulloch County School System are as follows: Elementary Schools Portal Elementary School Stilson Elementary School Brooklet Elementary School Nevils Elementary School Mattie Lively Elementary School Mill Creek Elementary School Sallie Zetterower Elementary School Langston Chapel Elementary School Julia P. Bryant Elementary School Middle Schools William James Middle School Langston Chapel Middle School Southeast Bulloch Middle School High Schools Statesboro High School Southeast Bulloch High School Combination Middle and High School Portal Middle and High School Transitions Learning Center (Known as the Alternative School which serves middle and high school students)

In the beginning as technology started to be added to the schools in the system, the county first began with only one technology person to support all of the schools. In time, as technology grew, more and more help was needed. Today, each school has either a full-time technology liaison or a half-time technology liaison shared between two schools. These people handle the day-to-day technology issues within their schools. Mrs. Beasley is the Instructional Technology Specialist responsible for providing district-wide instruction on how to utilize technology in the classrooms. She was just placed in this role in December as Teresa Phillips (who was first to be in this role) was moved to a position to assist teachers with Common Core. Mrs. Beasley is presently working on continuing things that Mrs. Phillips had established. One of the most pressing events is the upcoming Bulloch County Technology Fair for students to participate in, which will be held on Saturday, January 26. The Bulloch County School website sums up its mission with technology best. With technology our mission is to support the advancement of life-long learning in a quality, technology-rich, secure environment where students and staff develop skills to be successful citizens in this 21st century global community. Our vision is to provide a seamless, efficient network of collaboration that enables each learner to be actively engaged in the learning process by providing technology tools and resources that maximize student achievement. Bulloch County took on the task of constructing all new schools. As schools were constructed, technology played a big role in the development of what was needed in each school. This project was just completed over the summer of 2012 with the completion of the last new school Mattie Lively Elementary. All of the schools are equipped with lots of technology computer labs, Smart Boards in each classroom, digital presenting devices, laptops for each teacher, Fast ForWord and IPASS computer-based reading and math improvement labs for student learning, wireless Internet access in the media centers as well as increased bandwidth for video and Internet research.

All of the elementary and middle schools utilize computer-based testing resources such as MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) twice per school year. Web 2.0 resources are beginning to be a big hit with lots of teachers in the school system. Bulloch County does a fabulous job in keeping current with technology, in spite of budget concerns. Teachers have access to student folders on the network. They use an integrated student information system for student records, gradebooks, and provide record access to parents through Parent Portal. Last summer, the telephone system throughout the county was replaced with Voice over IP in order to reduce telephone costs and to standardize the calling numbers. Technology will continue to be a big part of the Bulloch County School System.