WEST ALEXANDRIA — The Twin Valley Community Local Schools Board of Education discussed an anonymous donation which landed the school nearly 400 new student laptops as well as the use of a cooperative purchasing agreement for the renovation of South’s athletic facility during their regularly scheduled meeting on Monday, Aug. 24.

South will be purchasing 360 Chromebooks, along with 30 extras, for replacement and repair purposes upon approval of their anonymous donor. The upgrade will “change the landscape of technology at South,” said Technology Coordinator Derrick Myers.

The upgrade is expected to allow teachers to integrate more technology in the classroom and take advantage of new and effective learning tools.

They will also be adding 10 extra access points for wireless devices inside the school building.

Superintendent Clint Moore also discussed using a cooperative purchasing enrollment agreement for the athletic facilities capital project plan. The school already went through the bid process for the new bleachers, per state regulations. The bids are due back to the school by Thursday, Sept. 3.

But the process was time consuming and arduous, said Moore, who noted that it took valuable time away from many of the staff involved in the process.

He presented the board with a few purchasing agreement options that will allow these cooperatives to take over the bid process for other improvements – such as the stadium lights – and present their findings back to the school.

Using this program comes at no cost to the school.

In other business, the board also agreed to allow the school to be used for critical incident response training by local safety agencies. They will take over the school for one week during the summer months in preparation and training on how to take a school back if an attack on the building were to occur. The training will also include three SWAT units, 15 police dogs, and a mobile command post.

Moore also went over quarterly policy updates, which included upgrades to legal references, a change from “husband and wife” to “spouses”, policies on the new college credit plus program implemented, and graduation requirements.

The next board meeting was moved. Instead of being on the fourth Monday of the month, the meeting has been moved to Monday, Sept. 21 due to a conflict with the superintendent’s calendar.