Neelyville R-IV school district to buy new phone system for 2020-21

The Neelyville R-IV school district will have a new phone system for the upcoming academic year with the help of CARES act funding.

The new system will work with the current door locks and camera system, but also create a more reliable system for teachers to communicate with parents and students, Superintendent Debra Parish said.

“Our phone systems are very outdated,” Parish said. “We have lots of problems ... You pick up and there’s just a dial tone, or you pick up and it sounds like the line is open, but there’s no one. It happens multiple times a day. Probably somebody trying to call us and can’t get through.”

Board members voted to use Hi-Tech Communications for the upgrade out of the three potential bids. While this had the highest one-time cost at $11,359, it was the only one that would work with current systems and had a lower monthly payment at $363.

“We would have still been with Hi-Tech for (doors and cameras),“ Parish said, continuing that it would be better to just get everything onto the same system.

As for the cost difference, the other two bids had about a $2,000 lower initial cost, but about $700 higher month-to-month cost, according to board documents.

“(Hi-Tech’s initial cost) will be recouped by monthly cost savings in less than six months and then continue to save the district into the foreseeable future,” Bruce McGrew, technology director, told board members.

Parish said the district plans to apply for CARES Act to help with these costs. With new plans for alternative methods of instruction in case students need to take another extended break, she said, teachers will rely on the phone system to maintain contact with parents and students about assignments at least weekly.

“We do need more phones and a better system available,” she said.