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Centerville-Abington board approves new evaluation tool, a technology loan and online payments account
Summary
The Centerville-Abington Community Schools board approved the 2026–2027 evaluation tool, authorized a technology loan to phase Chromebook purchases and voted to open a checking account and adopt a resolution enabling electronic payments for preschool and other online transactions.
The Centerville-Abington Community Schools board met and approved several routine but operationally significant items that administrators said will streamline operations and spread IT costs. The board approved a new teacher-evaluation tool for the 2026–2027 school year, authorized a technology common-school loan to fund phased purchases of Chromebooks and related software, and approved a resolution and checking account to accept electronic payments for preschool and other school functions.
Board members said the evaluation tool had been circulated in advance and was ready for approval; a motion to adopt the 2026–2027 evaluation plan was made, seconded and approved. Staff said the new technology loan is intended to stagger device replacements so the district does not replace all machines at once, and that Chromebooks will be a primary purchase because of cost and manageability.
On online payments, staff described the district’s current limitations (the preschool did not accept electronic payments) and presented options for accepting payments. During discussion, staff and members compared fee structures: credit-card processing was described in the meeting as roughly a 3% fee in some cases; QuickBooks/QuickBooks Payments and similar merchant services were discussed with lower per-transaction rates in some setups (staff cited 1%–2.5% as example ranges), while person-to-person apps such as Venmo were noted as a no-fee option for parents who choose that method but do not integrate automatically into school accounting. Staff also explained that the district’s lunch vendor system (eFunds) routes payments into PowerSchool to manage student lunch balances automatically.
To enable electronic payments, a board member moved to open a corporation checking account dedicated to online payments and to approve the payment-resolution language in the packet; the motion was seconded and approved. The board also approved two additional agenda items and a professional-development reimbursement request later in the meeting.
The meeting included a short facilities update: work on the Western floor is scheduled to begin June 14. The board adjourned after a final discussion about minor packet-formatting changes.
