Operation Future Ready: Socorro ISD board approves millions for technology

The Socorro Independent School District board voted Tuesday to spend $5 million on computers.

This decision is part of creating “21st century learning” environments and putting sharper technology in the classroom. It’s something all the big school districts in El Paso are working toward, because at this point, educators and employers say kids will need technology skills to be successful adults.

SISD’s Superintendent Dr. Jose Espinoza has said he wants his schools to stay at the forefront of this transformation in public education. This year he pledged to align with a federal technology initiative, which wants districts to invest in advanced technology teaching, called “Operation Future Ready.” The initiative encourages not only training teachers, but getting tablets, laptops, better desktops and more servers. Students will need to learn how to program computers, build websites and be digitally literate.

This is a top priority for SISD, which already allotted around $4 million for technology for next school year. For the board, approving nearly $1 million more was easy.

“As we look across the country and the state of Texas, or even the other districts around the area,” said SISD Chief Technology Officer Hector Reina, “technology engages our kids. It’s no different from when a kid buys a video game, they’re engaged. The other thing is when we looked providing laptops to our kids, the attendance does go up. The disruption of the classroom does go down.”

Socorro is growing so the money is coming in. The other districts share SISD’s vision of high-tech classrooms, but both Ysleta and El Paso may need to pass multimillion-dollar bonds to accomplish it.

Socorro ISD administration plans on attending a Future Ready summit next month, meeting with national leaders in technology to discuss how to further develop digital learning in schools.