MW school board buys laptops for students
Feb. 17—MINERAL WELLS — School trustees this week continued to outfit students with laptop computers, buying 550 Chromebooks for seventh and ninth graders.
The cost was $140,250. The machines are for the 2023-24 school year. Superintendent John Kuhn told trustees the seventh graders will use the tools through their senior year.
Mineral Wells ISD trustees also called the May 6 election, when seats held by Brandon Hons, Lauretta Poole and Maria Jones are on the ballot.
Those incumbents were the only candidates who had filed by Thursday afternoon. Hons is seeking a full, three-year term after being appointed upon the resignation of Scott Elder last year.
Trustees also renewed the district's longtime agreement to teach Palo Pinto ISD students at the secondary level.
The smaller district does not have a junior high or senior high.
The board also renewed a fiber optic contract with AT&T. Staff told the board the cost is on a declining scale, from $837 a month last year to $754 now and $711 monthly next year.
The meeting also saw longtime junior high teacher Bettye Meason honored as her campus' Apple Corps Teacher of the Year.
The award is bestowed at each campus annually. Recipients are selected by their fellow educators.
Students and teachers at the junior high produced a video praising the 40-plus year teacher.
"You're the reason I love English," student Hannah McMinn said on the video, which also featured student Audrey Smith and her guitar singing, Natalie Merchant's, "Kind and Generous," with its refrain of, "Thank you, thank you."
Meason thanked trustees and her campus colleagues, several of whom attended to see her awarded.
"Being a school teacher is a very difficult job, it isn't easy," she said. "But I think as educators we all agree it's worth all the effort and time that we put into it."
Maintenance Director Bobby Mori reported installation of new HVAC units at the high school is "on que."
He also said the district's old units will be sold by online auction site, Renee Bates Auctioneers.
The 70 units are 3- and 12-ton varieties, and Mori said they should be on the auction site by the end of the week.
The auction site address is www.renebates.com/
