Overton Schools Add 50 Digital Whiteboards

The Overton County School Board approved the low bid of some $129,000 for fifty interactive display boards during its Tuesday meeting.

Technology Supervisor Brent Thrasher said the panels are TV-sized touchscreens with computers built into them. Thrasher said once these units are installed, every classroom in the district will have one.

“The teachers and the students can go up to the board and interact with the lessons and work from that,” Thrasher said. “So that also will work in conjunction with their Surface Pros that we have issued to all the teachers and they can cast to that. So it gives the teachers a lot of flexibility in the way they deliver instruction.”

Thrasher said they are already issuing purchase orders and will have the boards installed later this school year. Thrasher said teachers in the district who are already using these screens greatly enjoy the interactivity they bring to the classroom.

“It’s a very clear projection,” Thrasher said. “It makes the materials easy to see and so it just helps the overall experience for students.”

Thrasher said the purchase is being paid for through carryover Title I funds left over from last year.

“Our Title I coordinators, this is one of their initiatives that they were wanting to work on,” Thrasher said. “And they kind of crunched the numbers and saw that they could make it happen so they wanted to make this as their focus.”

Thrasher said the purchase will include the slide-in PCs and mounting brackets required to set up each screen and get it operational.