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Burlington, WI
Technology donations aid Karcher School students BY PETE WICKLUND
"We've taken one leap forward in technology," says Karcher Middle School Principal Mark Sheldon. He is referring to the abundance of new computer equipment at the school, 225 Robert St., which serves grades 7 and 8 for the entire Burlington Area School District.
Roughly $60,000 of the equipment and related installation and refurbishing manpower came through a donation from a Racine-based nonprofit group called Tech Corps Wisconsin.
About 25 Tech Corps volunteers, and another 20 or so volunteers from the Burlington Area School District, on Aug. 18 installed 88 Pentium-class computer systems and 12 laser printers. According to Michael Pitsch, state coordinator for Tech Corps, it was the largest project to date for the 4-year-old group.
Sheldon said the donation means there is now a computer or mini-lab in every classroom at the 515-student facility, which is in its first year of existence at the former Burlington High School building.
The donation augments the school's new Gateway computer lab, which was paid for with funds from the 1997 district referendum, and a Dell keyboard lab that was left behind when the high school moved this past summer to a new facility on Burlington's east side.
While it may have been the largest Tech Corps project to date, it was not the first in the Burlington Area School District. The group installed computers last March at Dover Center School near Kansasville. And, during the Christmas holiday, 70 computers will be installed at Dyer Intermediate School, 201 S. Kendrick Ave. in Burlington.
Tech Corps Wisconsin is part of a nationwide effort to place technology in the nation's classroom. The program accepts donations of two- to four-year-old equipment from private industry and the government and refurbishes it for use in schools.
Pitsch, a Mount Pleasant resident and a member of the Racine Unified School District Board of Education, said he became aware of the program after becoming frustrated with the lack of equipment at Gifford Elementary School in Franksville while his daughter was enrolled there in the mid-1990s.
As a result of the efforts of Pitsch, who runs his own computer business, and acquaintances he knows from the industry, Gifford became the first school in the county to go online in 1996, Pitsch said.
Since then, and through the assistance of much monetary and hardware donations, several schools in the county have benefited from Tech Corps assistance.
Pitsch said volunteers typically spend a few hours on Saturdays refurbishing equipment at Tech Corps' facility inside the Jacoby Building at 1321 Racine St., Racine. He said volunteers and donations are always needed. And to help publicize the cause, Pitsch will be speaking to Burlington and Racine Rotary clubs during October.
"We're constantly in a recruit mode for volunteers and contributors," Pitsch said. "A lot of what we can do with requests depends on the resources we have."
Those interested in volunteering or helping Tech Corps should contact its office at 886-1807, or e-mail Pitsch at statecoordinator@tcw.org.
Meanwhile, the educational computers are also not the only new technology at Karcher. The school's office, which was constructed from space in the old high school library this past summer, has a new student information system which assists faculty and staff with attendance and grading tasks. Sheldon said the system is greatly improving efficiency.
There is also a new telephone system in the building, Sheldon said, which allows for a phone in every classroom.
