St. Mary's Storm Lake to launch computer lab
Posted March 7, 2002

St. Mary's High School in Storm Lake will soon enter a new realm of learning that's still relatively unknown in Iowa high schools. Thanks to a $10,000 grant from the Catholic Schools Foundation and some very successful local fundraising, St. Mary's today will officially launch their new wireless laptop lab. Sister Joan Stoffel, superintendent of schools for the Diocese of Sioux City; joined Rose Davis, principal of St. Mary's High School; and friends of St. Mary's at the official launch of the new wireless lab.

St. Mary's has always been one of the regional leaders in providing state-of-the-art technology to its students. The entire facility is networked and computers are found in every classroom. The creation of the wireless laptop lab is the latest enhancement that will enable St. Mary's students to access their school's computer network from any site within the school building. That wireless access will be made via new laptop computers purchased from Gateway, Incorporated in North Sioux City, South Dakota.

Sister Joan applauded the efforts of the Storm Lake community and St. Mary's School for their strong support of Catholic education. "The St. Mary's family has always been most supportive of our effort to provide a well-rounded Catholic education for the children of this area. The Catholic Schools Foundation is honored to contribute to this initiative that places St. Mary's students at the forefront of the technology revolution."

In light of increased funding pressure for both private and public schools across Iowa, the grant from the Catholic Schools Foundation to St. Mary's, comes at an opportune time. "The support from the Catholic Schools Foundation gives St. Mary's the ability to fund a project that otherwise would have been impossible to do," according to Davis. "Our Catholic schools have proven to be very efficient in managing our resources. This new wireless laptop lab is great testimony to the dedication we all have to Catholic education."

Pam Rust, technology coordinator at St. Mary's, says the wireless laptop lab is a tremendous addition to the Storm Lake School. "With our main computer labs being utilized to capacity every class period, teachers were finding it impossible to schedule lab time for an entire class. Our new wireless laptop lab gives us the ability to bring the lab to the teacher."

The new mobile lab is already earning high marks from students and teachers alike. Sara Carlson, Journalism instructor at St. Mary's says the new lab is incredible. "Instead of taking my class down the hall and wasting valuable instruction time, we can begin our work immediately in our classroom. Our students can get as three times as much done in one class period using the portable lab."

St. Mary's High School, now in its 90th year of service to the Storm Lake community and the Diocese of Sioux City, has nearly 300 students enrolled in kindergarten through 12th grade.