The Neosho R-5 Charitable Foundation completed its 2009-10 capital campaign of raising $50,000 to purchase and install SMARTBoard technology in every classroom at Neosho Junior High School and Neosho High School.
In the NHS cafeteria this morning, in front of a small crowd of students, administration, school board members and citizens, Neosho R-5 Charitable Foundation president Kim Wood presented Dr. Richard Page, superintendent, with a big check representing the foundation’s $50,000 donation to the district.
The money was raised from private citizens and donations from local and regional businesses this school year. The SMARTBoards, which average in cost of $2,500 each, will be purchased and installed over the summer break, and should be ready for student and teacher use around the start of the 2010-11 school term.
A SMARTBoard is an interactive white board where teachers can project an image or computer screen, and the board is touch-sensitive. It is a tool teachers can use to bring technology easily into the classroom and accessible to all students, and also as a way to get students to pay better attention to the task at hand, according to school administrators.
During his remarks this morning, Page said this drive completes the district’s goal of having SMARTBoards in every classroom in grades kindergarten through 12th.
“SMARTBoards will enhance the institutional process in the classroom, and speeds the learning process up,” Page said. “It opens the world to the classroom. Things that you used to just have to read about, you can actually see and be a part of during the class experience. Technology is changing the way that we do things in the classroom and it is opening doors to opportunities that we have never had before.”
The donation of $50,000 given by the foundation is not the first to go toward technology. The foundation donated $100,000 to improve high school technology during its first major capital campaign, and then raised another $50,000 to improve technology and services in the district’s library system. In the 2008-09 school year, the foundation raised $75,000 to purchase and install SMARTBoards for all classrooms at Neosho Middle School.
In all, the foundation has raised $275,000 to improve technology services in the Neosho R-5 School District during its four major capital campaigns.
“We are extremely pleased to have finished this campaign and raise $50,000 to put SMARTBoards in the junior high school and high school,” Wood said. “This completes the mission by putting SMARTBoards in all the classrooms kindergarten through 12th grade. This is going to be a boost for Neosho’s educational success.
“The Neosho community has really stepped up for the SMARTBoards. We have reached our goal within the amount of time we thought we would, and we just have a great community.”
