WESTLAKE VILLAGE : School Seeks Support for Technology Plan

A cure for what was described by one teacher as children’s “fear of pen and pencils” was presented to Westlake Village city leaders Wednesday, as White Oak Elementary School officials sought support for their ambitious technology acquisition plan.

With five city officials looking on, White Oak computer specialist Terry Utter used a video screen to demonstrate new interactive computer software and laser discs now being used in the school’s computer lab.

The software includes encyclopedia programs that students enter by pushing a button, and interactive books that invite children to follow along with a text while providing sound and moving cartoons to accompany the story.

“With the encyclopedias, my kids get so frustrated. They can’t find what they are looking for and the book gets put away. With this, they are so much more involved,” said fourth-grade teacher Karyn Alfonso, who also sat in on the demonstration.

White Oak Principal Richard Malfatti said the school is seeking the city’s endorsement of its technology aims to lend credence to a fund-raising campaign to begin next fall. Malfatti wants to make a $735,000 investment in computer software and hardware over the next five years.

The school, which is in the Las Virgenes Unified School District, is seeking corporate sponsors and private donors who will help it acquire televisions and videocassette recorders for each classroom, a library resource center of computer discs, and ultimately, enough computers to equal one per every two students in the school.

“Books are a thing of the past,” said Malfatti, but immediately corrected himself. “No, books will always be there. But in our technological world, kids are going to have to be on the fast track all the time.”

The city officials seemed wowed by the demonstration, and several expressed wholehearted support for the project.

“This is the tip of the iceberg of the way of the future,” said Doug Yarrow, mayor pro tem.