In Budget Discussions, School District Looks To Go Wireless

In a presentation Monday night to the Board of Selectmen, School Superintendent Deborah Low made clear the priorities set forth by the Board of Education earlier this year.

The top priorities, board members concurred, were those that included technological advances.

The main goal is to have a wireless network that students can link into with their own devices.

"The trend is certainly to move in the direction we're heading," said Josh Smith, Director of Technology at Ridgefield Schools. "We're a little ahead, but there are districts doing this already."

With 6,000 or so users between students and faculty and staff, establishing a wi-fi network isn't the simplest of tasks. Doing so across the district is expected to cost about $250 thousand in capital funds.

But it remains one of the district's priorities this year.

"We can't stress how important the wireless is to education in our town," board member Irene Burgess said.

Much of this is assuming families in Ridgefield can afford to send their children to public school with these expensive devices. Selectwoman Maureen Kozlark brough this point to light.

Low said there are netbooks available from the school.

She also said it would be a "messy process."

"There's some experimentation in this," Low said. "We have to phase it in."

School board member John Palermo said tablets will overtake the desktop and even the laptop as the personal device.

"This is probably the route it will go," Palermo said.