By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

The Pelham Board of Education has hired a firm to assess the upcoming city school system’s future technology needs, and will look to have everything in place by the time the system hosts its first students.

During a Jan. 27 meeting, the Pelham School Board agreed to pay the Clear Winds Technology company up to $3,000 to assess the technological infrastructure of the city’s schools.

Through the contract, the company will assess the technology infrastructure at the city’s schools, and will help the upcoming school system sign up for the federal E-rate program, which allows school systems to receive discounted telecommunication services.

The infrastructure assessment will help the school system to determine what it will need to have in place after it finalizes its split from the Shelby County School System.

“We’ve got to find out what we need, what we have to put together and go from there,” said Pelham School Board President Rick Rhoades. “If we don’t have that in place, we wouldn’t even have electricity.”