With money raised during the 2017 school year, Daniel Pearl Magnet High School was able to upgrade from a paper easel to a 50” Vizio TV monitor, which is now installed in the main office.

The TV was purchased with funds from the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) and displays a calendar of information, details promoting upcoming events and photos of events that have already passed.

“I think anything that adds an element of technology to the school is really good,” PTSA President Brandon Jarrett said. “It makes it easier and I think it looks better.”

There was a lot of discussion as to where to put the TV and how it will be used, which is why the TV took so long to be installed. The TV is meant to be a replacement for the paper easel that used to hang in the hallway. The events that were shown on the easel had to be rewritten each week and according to Principal Deb Smith, it eventually became too expensive to continue buying the paper. The TV was purchased to remedy that.

“I think that is really going to let us showcase things that are happening at our school,” Smith said.

A PowerPoint presentation is displayed on the screen and is updated every week. The information on the TV can prove useful to students who want to know what’s going on in the school. During the week leading up to Pearl Con III the TV displayed a countdown for the convention. Now there are also photos from the convention that highlight certain aspects of the event that people might’ve missed. There was also a schedule of dates for when the Advanced Placement tests would take place while AP testing was going on.

“It’s really nice when people come visit our school and they can see things like that,” Smith said. “Students can also keep an eye out for pictures of themselves.”