PLACENTIA/YORBA LINDA : School Computer Plans Unveiled

Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District officials this week unveiled an ambitious four-year plan to beef up technology in each of the district’s 28 schools.

The plan, which has not been approved by the Board of Trustees, is expected to cost $508,856. Most of that money will be spent on creating business computer labs at high schools and middle schools.

According to Supt. James O. Fleming, the project will be funded by several sources of “onetime money,” primarily interest income earned on investments.

If approved, eight elementary schools will receive computers from the district’s high schools and middle schools, which will receive new computers and equipment to build business labs.

According to a report prepared by Assistant Supt. Sharon McHolland, several teachers and other district employees, the objective is for each elementary school to have at least one 36-station computer lab. Some elementary schools already have such a lab, while others have obsolete equipment or fewer than 36 computers.

The proposed plan also calls for each middle school and high school to have a business lab with software commonly used in the business world. The labs will be equipped so that students can use various “information networks” and “computer bulletin boards.”

“The purpose is to empower all students to become contributing and employable members of society,” the report states.

The plan calls for all the computers to be transferred or purchased and installed this summer.

Schools scheduled to get new equipment are Van Buren Elementary School, Yorba Linda Middle School, Bernardo Yorba Junior High, El Dorado High School, Valencia High School, Esperanza High School and El Camino Real Continuation School.

Golden Avenue, Glenknoll, Sierra Vista, Wagner, Morse Avenue, Glenview, Fairmont and Woodsboro elementary schools will receive equipment from the schools receiving new computers.

In the second through fourth years of the proposed plan, bar-coding technology will be installed in all school libraries and computers and software used by school secretaries will be upgraded.