PORT ANGELES — Anything linked to Bill Gates is often automatically associated with computers, software and technology.
But when it comes to the $2.6 million grant awarded to the Port Angeles School District in 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, new computers and technology represent only a part of what the money was supposed to fund, district officials said.
District officials received a request from Michael Brown, a member of the School Advisory Group, which monitors district actions, for details on how the district spent its Gates grant money.
The officials shared expense reports and records related to the grant with Peninsula Daily News.
The school district spent less than 40 percent of the four-year Gates Education Initiative on buying and upgrading technology at district schools, according to those records.
More than technology
District Superintendent Gary Cohn said the public often mistakenly believes the grant was designed only to upgrade computer technology.
That’s not the case.
“Because the Bill Gates name is on it, people often think of Microsoft and computers,” Cohn said.
“In reality, the grant is about making schools better for kids who are going into the world in the next generation.”
According to an expenditure summary of the Gates grant over four years, the district spent $787,029 — or 38.3 percent — on new technologies for schools through September 2004.
Those purchases included computers, projectors and document cameras for use by teachers in classrooms at all grades, Cohn said.
Teacher travel
The second biggest chunk of the grant — $420,235 — was used for travel by teachers to schools across the country that were selected for their success in improving academic achievement.
More that 40 teachers have visited 23 schools in such states as Oregon, California, Ohio, Texas, New York and Maryland, said Michelle Reid, the district’s assistant superintendent for curriculum and assessment,
