DCS getting $3.4 million tech upgrade

The Demopolis City Schools Board of Education voted Monday to fund a technology overhaul for all four campuses in its system.

“It is one of the largest technology projects that Demopolis City Schools has ever seen,” DCS technology director Jeremiah Dial said. “At the beginning, we focused on the middle school and the high school. Then it grew to include all four schools.”

The project, which will cost approximately $3.4 million, will work in three phases as it first upgrades the school system’s security and communications before helping to better integrate technology into the classroom.

“We’re going to be replacing all the security cameras and the phone system,” Dial said of the first two phases of the project that will also call for the replacing of the intercom systems in each school. The third phase will help the school system move toward Dial’s ultimate dream, the one-to-one classroom that will allow each student to learn with the aid of a personal digital device.

“What we call in the education world, the 21st Century classroom, will be refreshed,” Dial said of an initiative he hopes to see achieved sooner rather than later. “We’ve actually met and talked about it. I see it at five years at the most and maybe way sooner than that because devices have gotten so cheap. It’s financially feasible now because devices have gotten so cheap. I hope within three years.”

“Total cost of the project is roughly about $3.4 million. We basically are getting zero percent interest over five years to pay for this project,” DCS board member Jim Stanford explained.

While the board is still hammering out the details of shouldering the financial burden, Stanford explained that the school system’s reserve funds in addition to its loan opportunities are more than enough to make it a feasible endeavor for DCS.

“Roughly, right now, we’re sitting on around $4.9 in two months reserve,” Stanford said. “There’ll be an annual payment on this project. I’ve looked at the numbers. Can we afford it? Yes. We’re in good shape to do this project.”

While the project is a considerable financial undertaking, the board expressed its eagerness to embark on the initiative.

“We feel as a board that we’ve just got to do it. We can’t just sit around and wait for it to happen,” board member Ronnie O’Neal said of the project, which stands to be completed this summer.