The Pearl River Board of Education made a change for Tuesday night's meeting.
It was their first meeting with members using laptops.
The board is in the process of getting rid of the large packets of paper that had been handed out to all board members at each meeting.
“This is our first time doing it,” said Robert Davis, president of the board. “We went through a simulation last week and we’re doing it live today.”
Things went mostly smoothly. There was one laptop that wasn’t cooperative when Bruce Bond tried to sign in and Jackie Curtiss’ laptop stopped working while the meeting was going on. The board members all still had their paper packets for this meeting, but it will be the last time they get the handouts.
Pearl River Superintendent of Schools Dr. John Morgano said the computers came from excess laptops the district owned and used at the high school. These particular ones he said couldn’t be used in the classroom any more because they’re so old they can no longer update the software on them. Morgano said if the board wasn’t using them at this time, nobody would be using them.
Additionally, Davis said the move will help save the district a lot of paper.
“The documents are online always in the system, saved forever,” he said. “Hopefully it helps us run the meetings smoother and save some paper, and also have a nice record of our board meetings.”
Also at Tuesday's meeting:
- Pearl River High School junior Laura Cooper, one of the two student representatives on the board, said that starting Wednesday a group of students will sell bracelets with Thomas Scognamiglio’s name on them. Scognamiglio, a Pearl River junior, died last week from Osteosarcoma, a cancerous bone tumor. Cooper said the idea came from juniors Cassidy McNeil and Kyle Urban, two of Scognamiglio’s close friends. She added that they’ve ordered more than 800 bracelets, which they will sell at the school for $5 each. The proceeds will go to pediatric cancer, although Cooper said she thinks the group of students are still looking for a specific organization or organizations to donate the money to.
