With the start of each academic year, K-12 schools experience change – new students, new teachers, new curriculum demands, and Paris City Schools is no different. However, opening day for Paris Middle brings a significant difference – an entirely new faculty from the previous year. As part of preparing them for student success, the new instructional team recently collaborated in a summer technology workshop series through the district’s partnership with Dataseam.
Dataseam, an education and workforce education organization based in Louisville, works with Kentucky K-12 schools, improving the state’s technology workforce as part of providing new classroom technology to schools addressing advanced curriculum needs preparing students for next-generation workforce demands.
Paris City Schools has been a partner in the statewide program since 2023. District’s participation has brought students and staff nearly $163,000 in new classroom technology – equivalent to over 10.5 years of state technology funding in the two-year timeframe.
Paris Middle School teachers participating in a summer technology workshop.
Superintendent Stephen McCauley explained, “As a district, we are always looking for ways to give our teachers the tools they need to help students succeed. Thanks to our partnership with Dataseam, our new middle school teachers will have the same high quality technology resources as the rest of our Paris City team. This collaboration not only strengthens our classrooms, but also supports groundbreaking cancer research at the University of Louisville, a powerful reminder that even in a small district our work can make a big difference for students and our community.”
Computers provided by Dataseam are linked across the state district-by-district to assemble the DataseamGrid, a vital piece of Kentucky’s innovation and commercialization network. It helps the University of Louisville’s Brown Cancer Center develop more effective cancer drugs quicker and with reduced costs. The cancer computations run securely in the background and do not impede the districts daily classroom and Internet demands. Dataseam has worked in partnership for over 20 years with Kentucky K-12 schools advancing these efforts.
“Along with the opportunity to expose Paris students to a variety of technology they will encounter beyond graduation, our teachers earning it through the partnership, improving themselves, provides a different and more meaningful experience,” shares Kelly Vice, district Director of Technology.
Vice is no stranger to the partnership. In his previous role as District Technology Coordinator for Menifee County Schools, Vice similarly served the needs of its students and staff. He continues, “Dataseam was originally funded by the Kentucky General Assembly to support public K-12 schools in the coal-producing regions of Eastern and Western Kentucky. When the state legislature made the changes to expand the program to all Kentucky schools, Paris City Schools was able to join the partnership. We appreciate the state legislature making that happen.”
“Every decision we make in the General Assembly on education comes back to one goal — student success,” said Senate Education Committee chair Steve West, R-Paris. “Through targeted efforts like Dataseam, the record funding we’ve provided in recent budgets is reaching classrooms in meaningful ways. I’m proud to see Paris City Schools taking advantage of these opportunities to strengthen instruction, support teachers, and open new pathways for their students’ future.”
With efforts funded by state and federal funding and appropriation through the Kentucky General Assembly, Dataseam now serves 59 Kentucky districts accounting for 40% of the state’s over 630,000 K-12 public school students.
For more information on the district: https://www.paris.kyschools.us
Download a PDF of this press release HERE.
