By Erik Tischer

In the last few years, one of the many changes at Grady is the introduction of high-tech touchscreen pads, called Box Light boards, for teacher and faculty use.

In some cases, Box Light boards have replaced Promethean boards and take  residence in various classrooms and the media center.

However, do we really need them?

One of the first places a Box Light board was installed was the media center. The main use for the board in the media center is to help teach students how to do research, but the boards are rarely used. While these can be helpful tools, the costs of having these boards outweigh the gains we receive, especially when the boards sit idle.

All too often, I see these rather expensive Box Light boards sitting unused in classrooms and think of the many ways we could use those funds.

Anyone who attends Grady or participates in extracurricular activities understands the limited funds the school receives. Many extracurriculars get little funding from the school and rely almost exclusively on their independent fund raising or parking lot sales. Limited spending not only affects extracurriculars, but it also affects the teachers and students.

Many teachers barely have the number of textbooks needed to provide every student with one. Some teachers do not have the money to get the resources to effectively teach. Teachers often have to resort to buying necessary supplies with money out of their own pockets to be able to deliver a successful lesson.

In order to teach some of the more difficult lessons, science classes require different materials and more expensive lab equipment. In many of my science classes, some of these essential lab materials are old and scarce which ends up limiting the number of labs we do throughout the year. 

A year ago, part of the cafeteria’s lunch line was redone to offer a more appetizing option to students. However, the new line, Street Eatz, was closed down a few months after opening, and since then the quality of food has vastly deteriorated.

Most of our bathrooms have empty paper towel dispensers and clogged drains with faulty sinks. Some of the mirrors have been stolen or are covered in graffiti, and in a few of the bathrooms, there are pools of water covering the ground.

After viewing the school as a whole, it becomes clear that spending what little money we have on these flashy, overgrown iPads is a gross waste of school resources. What was wrong with the older Promethean boards and projectors? Who asked for these new touch screen boards? Some teachers had no problem with the old ones, which is why this investment into large touchscreens is even more ridiculous.