PCs for MAINE advocate Adra Lovely of Owls Head, Maine asked ITE founder Chris Martin to support this school in Waldoboro.  Overstretched and underfunded, the schools administrators and teachers have been struggling for 13 years to keep the schools technology together so these kids would have the same access to technology as students in publicly funded schools do.  Due to significant resource shortages their technology plan has begun to fall apart.

On May 1st, 2012, ITE made its first gift to the school by delivering seven refurbished Windows 7 computer systems with Microsoft Office and a host of learning tools to the school.  ITE, Adra and a host of other concerned community people are working together to fund the initial cost of stabilizing the schools current technology as phase one.  ITE volunteers and staff will be providing remote technical support for these systems.

The estimated conventional market cost for this work (equipment, technical labor, support and consulting) is in excess of $7,800.00 which the school cannot afford.  ITE and the project partners have deployed the first $5,000.00 in equipment and services at no cost to the school and hope to raise funds to cover the remaining need.  ITEs intense use of volunteer technicians and donated equipment resulted in an alternative cost of only $1,900.00 and almost half of that cost was already committed to by partners by the time we posted this article!

Phase two of the project involves the installation of a server and fileshare, Internet Content filtering appliance (Linux based 'IP Fire' computer built by ITE volunteer Rick Gatewood of Belfast) and two 24 port 'smart switches' that were contributed by an ITE commercial partner.  The computers delivered and installed on May 1st were donations from Vistaprint (www.vistaprint.com) of Lexington, Massachusetts - another long standing ITE partner.

Phase three (still in development) involves refurbishment or replacement of the schools remaining computers, the addition of a domain controller, creation of a school website and email system and ongoing technical support provided by ITE staff so administrators can continue to build a school, and teachers can focus on teaching.

If you can help with this excellent community project, please contact Chris Martin of ITE.  Use the 'Contact ITE' link above for more information.