LUMPKIN COUNTY, Ga.- Director of Technology Sean Mullins brought the board of education the technology update from 2021 and where the system is going in the future at the work session on Feb. 9.

Chief Operations Officer Greg Trammell gave the board updates on Lumpkin County Elementary school. He also presented the bid for the Lumpkin County High School renovations project that will be voted on Monday, Feb. 14 at 6:00 p.m.

The technology updates for 2021 included classroom and infrastructure improvements. The classroom updates were adding cleartouch boards to some rooms, classroom cameras, and adding new Chromebooks.

The infrastructure improvements included new bells/intercoms at the middle school, security cameras, AD server, and external WIFI units. The external WIFI gives families that need internet access a place to come if there was another reason for learning to go online such as another COVID shutdown.

In 2022 there is going to be a switch in account management to OneSync due to the company that has been previously used going out of business. There will also be an additional four cameras added to the special ed classrooms, and additional Chromebooks added.

Currently, the school system has 4,600 Chromebooks, 3,317 of those still have testing capabilities. However, after May that number will drop to 2,484. These Chromebooks are still able to be used in the school in classrooms such as Art and Music for instruction purposes due to not being able to support the testing systems.

Going forward Mullins would like to replace the facility laptops and add 1,300 Chromebooks over the next two years. This will keep the system having testing capable Chromebooks until 2028. To learn more about what the technology department has to offer visit https://www.lumpkinschools.com/page/technology.

“Sean is always on top of things in technology and we certainly appreciate him, he’s a tremendous asset for us,” explained Superintendent Dr. Brown.

Trammell gave the board an update on Lumpkin County Elementary School’s progress. 90% of the grading is complete, curb and cutters are 65%, the foundation is 3%. The board will be visiting the site before the regular meeting Monday to see how far the process has come.

Charles Black Construction has bid $2,145,440.00 for the High School renovations. This comes in below the original budget of $2.7 million but still gives room for unexpected things that come up.

The renovations will take place over the summer and include new epoxy on the bathroom floors, a new upper gym floor, flooring throughout, painting the entire right half including the gym, plumbing, electrical including a new fire alarm system, and a new display case. The board will vote on this bid at the regular meeting Monday.