Montgomery County schools are likely to come up nearly $2 million short next year to pay for high-tech chalkboards, according to district documents, and the County Council is warning schools will need to find more cuts.
The shortfall is part of ongoing frustrations between the district and the council, which serves as the schools’ funding authority. Though the interactive “smart boards” are already in the classrooms, members of the council say the schools acquired them without permission, leaving the county on the hook for the funds.
In 2008, the school system leased 2,600 of them at $5,000 a piece. The four-year, $13 million lease relied on a steady stream of federal funds designed to help districts pay for Internet connectivity for schools and libraries.
That money, according to a budget overview by the district’s office of technology in late March, is estimated to be about $1.7 million in 2010, or about half of the $3.4 million expectation cited in a Friday memo from Superintendent Jerry Weast to the council’s education committee.
Since the lease came to the attention of the County Council earlier this year, members have expressed frustration with being kept in the dark and have shown little desire to hand over more money.
“They’ll have to find offsetting cuts someplace else,” said Councilwoman Valerie Ervin, chairwoman of the education committee. “The budget is what it is. We’re already expecting $50 million less to the county from the state.”
The reshuffling of funds would likely come within the technology budget, meaning the possibility of delayed modernization at schools.
“This is an ongoing problem,” Ervin said. “This is why [Montgomery County schools get] looked at sometimes with a jaundiced eye — they’d rather ask for forgiveness than permission.”
In the meantime, the smart boards have received rave reviews from students and teachers, and Montgomery County has become a leading client for Promethean Inc., a giant manufacturer of the technology.
Sherwin Collette, the district’s chief information officer, was sent to London in October, despite a district-wide tightening of travel, to take part in a Promethean-sponsored conference on technology in education.
Montgomery County schools declined to offer an explanation for the shortfall in funds.
