BY DANA DiFILIPPO
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Teachers in Cincinnati Public Schools who want to track a new student's academic progress or discipline history either have to head for the telephone or rely on the pupil's word.
But under a $6.6 million technology upgrade, teachers will be able to type students' names into a computer and learn everything about them -- from attendance history to past test results to discipline records.
The catch is the cash.
Administrators probably will have to borrow the bulk of the funds, prompting district Business Manager Steve Ottemann to urge school board members to adopt a long-range technological plan that includes setting aside money every year for computer needs.
"We can't keep coming back to you for $4 million or $5 million every three or four years," Mr. Ottemann told board members during committee meetings Wednesday."As we prepare the district for long-range plans, we must earmark technology funds in every budget."
The upgrade addresses three needs -- tracking student statistics, preparing for the new century, and adding or updating computers in district offices and classrooms, district Treasurer Richard Gardner said.
The database of student statistics will cost $2.97 million, Mr. Gardner said.
It would include student demographics, a child's enrollment status and location, student mobility data, student attendance history, academic test results, discipline history, school management and other statistics the state requires districts to track.
Keeping those figures in one database will help administrators better track student mobility, attendance trends and academic progress, Superintendent J. Michael Brandt said.
It also will ease the district's student-based budgeting efforts, in which funds follow students if they transfer schools.
Administrators aim to have the system in place in middle and high schools by December, in kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools by March and in elementary schools by August 1999.
Updating existing computer programs will cost $1.36 million. And addressing the Year 2000 problem will cost $2.23 million.
Expanding the school network also will give students access to the Internet, e-mail, and other instructional and multimedia programs and equipment.
