ARRA Dollars

Image by murplej@ne - brutally architortured via Flickr

For those who have been in a whole the last few months the ARRA, or American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, is President Obama's short term stimulus plan to pump the economy with billions/trillions of dollars in hopes of creating jobs, etc. While I will not use this blog for my personal or political views (whether I agree with this act or not), I will use it to emphasize some great things coming about in my district because of this act.

At some point (I hope), we will see some Title II-D dollars in the ballpark of three times our normal non-competitive allotment. A majority of these dollars will be earmarked for Technology PD. I hope to bring in some of our vendor partners and provide additional training on tools we are currently using.

The district is also receiving ARRA dollars in the areas of Title I and IDEA-B. I think it speaks volumes for the impact that technology is having on instruction/learning in our district when the people who are over both of these grants come to me with wish lists on how to spend their dollars. Once all is said and done, we will be looking at an overall investment approaching $200,000 from the ARRA funds towards increasing technology tools in the classrooms. These funds will purchase everything from interactive boards/pads, audio solutions, digital cameras, student response systems and student computers.

I hope all the training / tools we invest these dollars towards help meet our ultimate goal of enabling students / teachers to better communicate, collaborate and problem solve in our ever changing global economy.

JDS | CIO