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At Monday's Elk Rapids Schools Board of Education workshop session, district technology and business officials made a "State of Technology" presentation in which they outlined an $840,000 project that would upgrade district technology over four school years.

District business manager Jeff Scroggins called the project a "pretty significant investment" that would need to be funded by a bond whose payback period could be up to five years long.

Scroggins presented three-, four- and five-year scenarios for paying back the bond. In the three-year scenario, the district would levy .37 mills per year. For a four-year bond, district taxpayers would pay .28 mills over that time. In a five-year scenario, taxpayers would add .22 mills to their taxes each year.

A resolution on the bond must be made by March 8 to appear on a May ballot, and Scroggins pointed out that the nearest board meeting to that date would occur on Feb. 26. Spending, if the bond were approved, would begin in 2007, he added.

Educational technology director Doug King and technology specialist Bernie Johnson updated the school board on the district's current "state of technology" and where they see the district going in the next four years.

King said computers in the district are slowing down, which decreases effectiveness of staff, students and teachers. In addition, there just isn't enough equipment at the high school, he said.

Board president Martha McGuire asked why the computers are so slow, and Johnson said they machines are not only older, but bigger operating systems and larger antivirus programs add to the speed issues.

King added that the machine failure rate is increasing, and he thinks it will continue to rise.

The recommendations made to the board encompassed four school years, beginning in 2007-08. In that year, King and Johnson suggest spending $371,000, which would include replacing a high school lab and funding Freedom to Learn at Cherryland Middle School.

Johnson said the one benefit of funding Freedom to Learn -- which provides one laptop for each pupil in a middle school grade-level -- is that it allows the district to do away with a middle school computer lab. The computers there would then go to Elk Rapids High School, he said.

Board member Doug Coates said it concerns him that there would be 460 computers in the middle school with additional Freedom to Learn laptops but only 160 at the high school. He asked how involved teachers were in developing the technology plan.

High school teacher Lori Floyd said high school instructors were asked what their three top requests would be. She said the school needs more technology for its students and described how frustrating the library's computers are.

She said a co-worker had asked students whether they'd prefer to take an exam on the library's computers or to hand-write the test, and the students chose to hand-write it.

Board member Ed Bailey said he thinks the high school's needs should be looked at further.

If Freedom to Learn were funded, the high school would have a brand new lab plus computers from Cherryland, King said. Floyd said there would still be only one lab for about 500 students at the high school.

Among suggestions for spending in 2008-09 was the purchase of a new phone system. Coates said he'd like to see more support on why the district needs a system that could cost about $136,000. If the complaint is that it's scratchy, he'd rather spend the money on new computers, he said.

In his presentation, King said the current phone system requires outside maintenance, which adds expense. In addition, it has continual problems and can't alert 9-1-1 responder to where a call is made.

District superintendent Jon Hoover suggested that it would be good to show how much the current phone system is costing in maintenance.

The district's technology committee plans to discuss the suggestions and the board will revisit the topic at a future meeting.