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Technology and infrastructure were highlighted at Monday’s work session for the Troup County School Board. During the meeting, Ryan Traylor, director of facilities and construction presented some of the construction work being done across the district. Chip Medders, assistant superintendent, highlighted the work in technology that Joshua Moneypenny, director of technology, has been doing for the school system.

Renovations have been going on at several schools and will continue into the new year. Projects include repaving roads at Hollis Hand Elementary, freezer and cooler replacement at Callaway High School, and new locker room plumbing at Troup High School.

Traylor oversees many of the ongoing and future projects for TCSS and said he is proud of the work that they are doing.

“I’m proud all of them … I love my job and I enjoy supporting the school system and the students and staff,” Traylor said.

When asked in an interview how the projects are selected, Traylor said it is a process that is planned extensively and prioritized based on need.

“It’s different projects, so like [the] roofing project at Troup High School starts Monday … The life expectancy of that roof is gone,” Traylor said. “[There’s] a lot of time to go into looking and prioritizing what we’re doing. It’s just from daily operations [and] seeing things that are damaged. There’s a need for repairs [as] far as that goes.”

During the work session, the school system’s technology budget was also discussed. In an interview after the meeting, Joshua Moneypenny elaborated on the continued work by the school system to stay up to date on technology.

“Our biggest thing now is a lot of our one to one fleet is getting old, especially for the middle and high school students who’ve had their devices for a while,” Moneypenny said. “That’s kind of our next focus is refreshing those devices.”

Moneypenny said that his department will be expanding and offering quicker response time to help teachers and students at the schools.

“We’re expanding our department, so that we can have a dedicated technician at every middle and high school,” Moneypenny said. “That way, we can offer a lot quicker response time for teachers and students when it comes to issues.”

Moneypenny said that his department and the school system overall will be placing an emphasis on student safety with technology now and in the future.

“We have a lot of safeguards in place to protect students while they are on the internet,” Moneypenny said. “We’re rolling out some additional features that allow parents to control the internet on their student’s Chromebook while they’re at home outside of our control.”

Some items regarding renovations and technology were moved to the consent agenda for Thursday’s board meeting. These include the Microsoft renewal, the purchase of a bark blower, and approving the Administrative Service Center renovation.

The school board meets Thursday at 5:30 p.m. Thursday. The meeting is open to the public.