By Tippi Rasp

Staff Writer



As public school budgets get smaller due to funding cuts and increased operating expenses, school administrators are thankful for the generosity of nonprofit groups providing technical support.

Chisholm Public Schools is benefiting from a federal program that matches nonprofit groups with schools to provide used computer and technology equipment. Chisholm Middle School Principal Shane Dent picked up 17 computers this week donated to the school by Oklahoma Foun-dation for Medical Quality in Okla-homa City.

The school has received more than 40 computers and monitors, a copier, four servers, 16 laptops and several LCD projectors from OFMQ.

“They’ve been very generous,” Superintendent Roydon Tilley said.

Most of the computers are being used at Chisholm Middle School, although one of the servers is being utilized at Chisholm Elementary School. Before the donation, administrators thought they were going to have to buy a new server to support software for the elementary school.

Dent is using a number of the slightly used computers in the middle school library. He said OFMQ donated more than 40 complete work stations with 3- or 4-year-old Pentium IV processors.

“Everything in that lab is from them,” Dent said. “We wouldn’t have that middle school lab without them. We’ve definitely met so many needs.”

Other computers have been installed to replace old, outdated computers in teachers’ classrooms. Other equipment is being used at Chisholm High School. The first batch of computers and equipment came in mid-January.

Dent said he applied for the federal program at the beginning of the school year. He said he had to demonstrate a need and explain how they would use the equipment. The government matches schools to companies who have the resources they need.

“It just kind of grew,” Dent said, explaining Chisholm’s good fortune when OFMQ decided to upgrade and change its entire system.

“A couple of machines turned into this huge donation.”

Tilley said he wasn’t sure of a dollar amount on the donation, but OFMQ saved the district thousands of dollars.

“We are finally at a place where teachers feel comfortable taking their classes to the lab since they know each child will have a computer and the computers will work when they get there,” Dent said. “This investment in our school is paying immediate dividends.”

OFMQ is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving health care for all Oklahomans, including the state’s more than half-a-million Medicare beneficiaries. As the original and only quality improvement organization in Oklahoma, it provides comprehensive quality evaluation and improvement programs for doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and home care agencies.

OFMQ contracts with Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, an agency of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.