City Schools brings in new tech, tools
Students and teachers at Las Vegas City Schools campuses will encounter several new technology elements as they start a new school year.
At Thursday’s regular board meeting, City Schools’ Director of Technology John Tiernan updated board members on the rollout of a new smartphone app called STOPit that allows students to anonymously report things like inappropriate student-teacher relationships, bullying, threats, and abuse of drugs or alcohol.
Tiernan said once students download the STOPit app, they can report anything happening on campus directly to administration. While he admits other districts have encountered false reports during the first few weeks of implementing the STOPit app, he said it usually stops once students realize someone is responding to complaints submitted through the app.
“The process internally will be exactly the same for incidents that are reported,” Tiernan said. “The administrator will have to determine the validity of the report. This just gives another means for students to be able to report things that are happening on campus.”
However, Board secretary Gabe Lucero raised concerns about the district’s current policy, and suggested the board look into amending its policy to accommodate technologies like STOPit.
Teachers will also see new technologies in their classrooms this school year. Some spent the week getting training on smart TVs, and the district has been migrating its current email system to Google Classroom.
Aside from email, Google Classroom will give teachers access to word processing and spreadsheet applications, as well as communication tools like instant messaging.
“It gives (teachers) the capability of doing things like posting homework assignments,” Tiernan said. “It will give parents more visibility of what’s happening in the classroom.”
Teachers will also start using a new automated system for assigning substitute teachers. When a teacher needs to be out of the classroom, they will enter the need for a substitute teacher into a computer program, the system will then assign a substitute teacher automatically.
“The way this works is as a teacher puts in a request, that request gets posted to the application,” Tiernan said. “One of our substitutes can go in and look at the request, and decide if they want to accept it. Forty-eight hours before a leave is scheduled, if nobody has accepted the posting, the system goes from that passive posting mode to an active mode where it actually starts calling people in the substitute pool.”
The system does not allow teachers to request a specific substitute, nor can they reject one. But if substitutes are not performing well, there is a process for reporting them, which could lead to discipline or even removal from the substitute pool.
“The reason we have started this process in the first place is we found a lot of inequity,” Tiernan said. “We have some substitutes that are never called. If the reason they’re not called is because teachers always call the same person to sub for them, that’s not fair to the other people who are just as good of a substitute, but never got called.”
The board also heard an update on construction and remodeling projects at Los Niños Elementary School and Robertson High School from Superintendent Kelt Cooper.
Repairs have been made to gas and sewer lines at Los Niños, and the parking lot paving project was expected to be finished by the start of school on Monday. Cooper also told the board the company responsible for delivering portable buildings needed for the ongoing construction has experienced delays, and if the delays persist, construction could be pushed back.
At RHS, the district has received one bid on new security fencing, and is awaiting two others. The replacement or repair of several doors at RHS and across the district — approved at the board’s last meeting — was expected to get under way soon.
Thursday, the board also:
• Heard an update from Director of Curriculum Larryssa Archuleta about instruction across the district. Archuleta told the board CYFD had given a presentation to elementary and secondary teachers on identifying children who may be in need, and how to report it.
• Heard an update on hirings. While the district has made some key hires, it still has several vacancies, such as a track coach and several teaching positions. And the district has yet to hire a speech pathologist.
• The board was supposed to hear an audit committee report, but Business Manager Mari Hillis explained the meeting has not yet taken place and she was still trying to get it set up.
• Discussed a 5 percent salary increase for student nutrition staff, and considered the idea of offering a $1,000 end of the year bonus instead of a sign-on bonus to reduce turnover.
• Approved a measure to provide transportation for students attending UNM Dream Makers activities, a joint effort between the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center for Diversity and school districts across New Mexico. The program offers middle school and high school students the chance to learn about health-related professions.
• Approved New Mexico School Boards Association Policy Advisory 157, which mandates staff conduct with students.
• Selected Thursday, Sept. 20 as the date for its next regular board meeting.
