By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Thompson High School, Thompson Middle School and Thompson Intermediate School soon will see some significant computer upgrades after the Alabaster Board of Education approved $40,000 in technology purchases during its Oct. 19 meeting.

The School Board voted unanimously during the meeting to approve computers for the three schools at the recommendation of ACS Technology Coordinator Anthony Kingston.

As a result of the purchases, student computer labs at TIS and TMS soon will see new computers, Kingston said. The purchases also will bring new computers to THS teachers, he said.

“If you’ve been to the high school, you’ve seen some of those teacher units are very old,” Kingston said. “We’ve got a lot of technology needs in our schools, and we are excited to start meeting some of those needs.”

ACS recently finished installing new wireless Internet equipment in all of the city’s schools, and has significantly strengthened the wireless signal at the schools.

“We’ve been trying to build the infrastructure up. The network switches and things like that aren’t the most visible improvements,” Kingston said. “But now the fun stuff begins: Putting technology in the hands of the teachers and the students.”

ACS School Board President Adam Moseley and Alabaster School Superintendent Dr. Wayne Vickers said, with Kingston’s help, the school system will gradually make technology improvements to the city’s schools moving forward.

“We have thousands of computers in our district, and we are behind with upgrading them. We have been behind for years,” Moseley said. “But it’s a process, and we will get there.”

“There are some things we need to get done, and I think this is the year to start doing some of those things,” Vickers said.