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Parent warns Pontiac fifth-grade portables lack phones, WiFi and smart boards on first days of school
Summary
A Pontiac Elementary parent told the Richland 2 board that fifth-grade students in portables lacked classroom phones, WiFi and installed interactive boards during the first days of school, saying work orders remained incomplete.
A parent and district employee told the Richland School District Two Board of Trustees on Aug. 12 that fifth-grade classrooms in portable units at Pontiac Elementary were missing classroom telephones, WiFi and installed Clear Touch interactive boards during the first days of the 2025–26 school year.
The speaker, identified in the meeting as Doctor Anna Parish, said school administrators had submitted work orders well in advance and that the missing classroom infrastructure left teachers and students without technology other classes were using.
Parish said the absence of technology did not reflect administrators’ efforts. “Fifth grade teachers and portables at Pontiac have had to teach like they were back in the eighties during the first days of this school year,” she said. “As of today, there's still no WiFi or classroom phones in the fifth grade portables where teaching and learning is expected.”
Why it matters: classroom phones are used for school-to-classroom communication and safety; WiFi and interactive boards are widely used for instruction. The speaker said the problem reduced instructional capacity and reflected poorly on the district’s operational readiness at the start of the school year.
What the speaker asked for
Parish urged the board to ensure classroom work orders are completed promptly, to make sure every classroom has the same access to instructional technology from day one and to communicate that the district values staff and student needs.
Board response and next steps
The comment was delivered during the public participation portion of the meeting; there was no formal board action recorded on the issue at the Aug. 12 meeting. Superintendent Doctor Moore later provided a districtwide operational report in the meeting that included staffing and program updates but did not offer an immediate remediation timeline for the Pontiac work orders during that session.
Ending
Parish asked the board to treat incomplete work orders as an operational priority and noted that unresolved classroom-technology issues are visible to students and families during the school’s opening days. The board’s agenda shows ordinary operational updates and a procurement discussion on future meeting agendas; the transcript does not record a follow-up timetable for the Pontiac work orders.
