3 Schools to Be Named Test Sites for Computer Link

Three schools will be named tonight as test sites for the Irvine Unified School District’s new technology plan, the first step in creating a computer link connecting the city’s 30 public schools.

One high school, middle school and elementary school will be chosen from eight semifinalists for the installation of cabling and computers to create a local area network. The announcement restarts an ambitious technology plan that was derailed by the county bankruptcy.

Nearly every school in the district submitted an application to become a “demonstration site” for the technology plan. District officials would not disclose which schools will be named at tonight’s school board meeting.

The three selected schools will provide a testing ground for the district’s technology plan and a demonstration site for potential sponsors. The district hopes to install computer cables in all schools within a year for the planned network, according to Deputy Supt. Dean Waldfogel. But individual schools must pay for their own network computers.

“The district will take responsibility for the computer infrastructure,” Waldfogel said. “Then the schools will hang additional computers onto the system.”

Educators envision a districtwide computer network that also will connect to the Internet and other data sources, including university libraries.

The three winning schools were chosen in part for the difficulty they will present in being wired for a computer network, said Richard Gallup, an engineer with Fluor Daniel Inc. who was on the selection committee.

“A number of the schools were built more for their architectural features than for retrofitting new technologies,” Gallup said. “We were looking for a challenge.”