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Murphysboro school district gets upgrade

By Adam Testa

Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:02 PM CDT

The Southern

MURPHYSBORO - Technology has been at the forefront of business for Murphysboro Community Unit District 186 recently.

Visitors to the district's Web site, or that of any school in the district, has seen one of the major advancements. All the Web sites were redesigned to have a more uniformed, professional look, said district technology coordinator Steve Carrington.

The new sites also feature calendars of events for the district and the individual schools, which is made possible through Zimbra, the district's new e-mail system, he said. This system allows teachers and administrators to post events once and have them available to parents and staff.

"We can better stay up to date with events going on in our district," Carrington said.

The new system also allows for parents to receive e-mail updates on things such as their child's grades and attendance if necessary. Carrington hopes to one day have a network created where parents can access the system and view their records.

In addition to Web updates, the district school board has also begun looking at the process of replacing between 170 and 180 computers from labs in the schools.

Business Manager Jan Bush asked the board to approve authorization to find interest rates at local banks to purchase new computers on a lease-to-own basis with an expected cost of $150,000. Funds are levied specifically for lease-to-own purchases, and Bush said the computer replacement project could probably be paid off within three years.

The computers replaced in labs would be moved to classrooms. The average age of a lab computer is three to five years, while some classrooms computers have been there for more than 10.

"That's a good way for us to upgrade those computers and keep the technology rolling," Bush said.

adam.testa@thesouthern.com

351-5031