Whew. Whew. Whew. Whew. Whew. I think I’m finally finished writing the Digital High School Grant. I’ve been working on this Goliath since November of 1999, and just a few minutes ago I put the last period on the last sentence and hit the save button.

Of course, now it has to be proofread and critiqued before I send it off to the state by the July 11 deadline, and no doubt people will find a dozen changes to make, some probably huge, but, hey, I’m still finished, except for that.

This grant is worth a half-million dollars, so it’s no simple document. We spent months gathering data, attending meetings and assimilating input from teachers, administrators, students, parents, technicians, and interested Benicians. Then that mountain of data was laid before me, and all I had to do was write the darn thing.

It covers every aspect of our technology past, present, and future. It required us to set goals and objectives for exactly how we will spend this money over the next three years and what we’ll learn from it.

Here are our objectives: in three years 80-percent of our students will prove technical proficiency in a variety of applications and skills, and 70-percent of our teachers will prove the same proficiencies. The numbers are higher for students because we’re realists. When we did a baseline survey in January, we found that 40-percent of students are currently proficient and 35-percent of teachers are so. Thus our objectives are to double the number of skilled staff and students over the next three years.

Here’s the wonderful thing. Most California high schools applying for this grant must spend the money wiring all classrooms for the Internet, a strict requirement for receiving the money, and a task that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. Thanks to our endowment from the East Bay Community Foundation, our school is wired.

We get to spend a lion’s share of this new money (approx. $350,000) on training and tech support, crucial elements for ultimate success. Statistics show that teachers who do not receive a minimum of 32 hours of technical training do not feel proficient to teach it in the classroom. We have set aside $180,000 to hire an on-site technician, and $112,000 for teacher training, which works out to about 90 hours per teacher.

In addition, we have created a fund of $50,000 to reach another objective – that each department write into its curriculum at least one extended technology-based project to be taught to all students attending those classes. Teachers and departments can apply for funding from this pool of money to implement new project ideas. That money can go toward hardware, software, or additional training. Thus it is possible that all our teachers will receive up to 100 hours of training from the DHS Grant.

And furthermore, as I mentioned last week, I’ve been chosen to be an Intel Master Teacher, which means I’m expected to provide an additional 40 hours of training to 60 more teachers. If all goes according to plan, the staff at Benicia High is going to be one well-trained tech savvy bunch.

The complete finished grant consists of a 2-page introductory abstract, a 25-page narrative, and about 10 assorted forms and spreadsheets. The abstract and narrative will soon be posted at www.ragingbull.com under the symbol BHSDHS. I hope some of you find time to read it and comment.

Allow me to close this week’s column with the opening lines from the abstract:

Benicia lies 26 miles north of Berkeley, just across the $2 bridges from Concord and Crockett. Our 28,000 citizens nestle in a pocket of rolling hills between the bay and Vallejo, our nearest neighbor. A few years ago, Benicia was ranked No. 1 for family living in a San Francisco Survey of Bay Area Cities. For a long time we referred to Benicia as a bedroom community -- quiet, conveniently removed from the hectic pace of the Bay Area proper. That description is no longer accurate. The bustle of the Bay Area has swollen to encompass us.

Our Industrial Park is thriving with innovative new industries. Our city is rich with citizens involved in the new social paradigms -- Internet communication and commerce, computer integration into every segment of business, alternative energy sources, information organization, wireless connectivity, electronic proliferation of products. Benicia is wide awake and actively in the thick of the Digital Age.