Dear Editor, I fully understand the importance of technology in today's society. Technology is a very important part of everyday life. Our children certainly need to understand technology and become proficient in its use.  The district is proposing to spend one million dollars to get this new endeavor off the ground. The cleanup at the Jefferson School came in one million dollars under budget and these funds would be used for the IPAD project.The buildings will be set up with wireless technology and students will be receiving IPAD's. In a perfect world, this would be a scenario that would benefit the students, teachers, and schools. However, as we know our economy has been far from perfect for several years now. It is not news to anyone reading this that we have been in the deepest recession in generations. It has been the worst downturn in the economy since "The Great Depression" Many parents have lost their jobs and are struggling to pay their mortgages. Gas prices continue to rise. Property taxes have continued to climb. College expense is at an all time high. Families are being squeezed in many different directions and can barely make ends meet. Is this the right time to start a project that will most likely result in millions in expense over the next few years? From my understanding this first one million dollars is for the test phase of the project. How much in additional cost are we looking at in future years? How many teachers have been "let go" over the last few years? How many more are in danger of being "let go" this school year? If we rush to vote on this project in January, will we know the full effect of upcoming budget cuts to cities and towns? It would be a shame to approve and spend this one million dollars in January for the IPAD project and then find out in May that we need to "let go" of 25 teachers. Personally I feel that the one million dollars that was not spent in the cleanup project should be returned to the towns of the district. However, if the money were to be spent to save the jobs of 25 teachers, I would consider that to be a viable use of the money. As we have also seen, technology is moving at light speed these days. What is a new and cutting edge tool today can be antiquated by tomorrow. A few years back, Blackberry's and Laptop's were considered cutting edge. Today it is IPAD's and IPhone's.. Who is to say that two years from now that IPAD's won't be antiquated technology? In reality, they most likely will have been replaced by a new cutting edge product. I can certainly see the value in having wireless internet in our buildings. We will then have the connections that will be necessary to host the changing products such as the IPAD. However, we cannot underestimate the rate that the technology will change and the expense associated with those constant changes. To me there are alot of questions that need to be answered. There are alot of scenario's that need to be investigated. We need to slow down and think about this proposal to make sure it is the correct decision for our district. No one can argue that technology is important. But I also argue that our teachers maintaining their jobs is important. I believe that middle school foreign language is important. I believe that families need to be able to survive in this very difficult economic climate. Without our teachers in place we will not have people to teach the proper operation of the IPAD's to the students. My request is that we do not vote on this important issue in special meetings to be held January. We need more information from the district. We need to find out what the total expected cost of this project will be. We need to find out how many teachers will be in jeopardy of being "let go" this spring. I feel that we are being pressured to act without having answers to many important questions. We are not buying a used car. We are considering a major investment that that will effect all of us. Lets all take a deep breath and vote at the town meetings in the spring. We cannot rush into this blindly. If we receive more details about this project,we can decide at the spring town meetings if this is the right time for this project. It could be that this is just not the right time for this project. Let informed parents make the decision in the spring. We all deserve to understand and consider the entirety of this project without making an uninformed decision that will effect all of us for many years to come. Jon DiVitoRutland, MA