Valstar donated DSL services and routers to The Clermont Lab located in the Clermont Academy building. Clermont Academy was the first public school in New York State and now has become the first public community computing lab based on the LINUX operating system. Bram Moreinis, Taconic Hills Central School District technology curriculum coordinator and Clermont webmaster, will supervise the installation of the lab with students from Germantown High School.
The lab is geared toward assisting the local community in planning and business needs as well as assisting residents in farm management. In addition, training in database development for tracking, maintenance schedules, spreadsheets for accounting and planning, Internet networking, weather forecasting, price researching, and equipment repair/ replacement will be taught.
Valstar responded to the request from The Clermont Lab for a high speed DSL Internet connection to better meet the needs of the residents living in Southern
Columbia County with their educational needs. "Knowledge of computer usage today is essential if you are to conduct town governmental business, run a local business or operate a farm. We salute this initiative and are glad to be a part of this endeavor" commented Bruce Bohnsack, president and general manager of GTC/Valstar.
The students from Taconic Hills and Germantown High Schools will staff The Clermont Lab, which will be open from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. every Thursday (except public school vacations), with classes running from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. The lab will also be available to students during Town Clerk hours.