Victoryland owner makes donation to Macon County Schools
SHORTER, AL (WSFA) - Christmas came early for the Macon County school district this year, and they say their Santa is none other than Milton McGregor.
The Victoryland owner made a donation to the school system Wednesday morning to help students gain access to new technology in the classroom.
In July, Macon County schools received a multi-million dollar gr ant from Apple as part of President Obama's ConnectED initiative. As a result, every teacher received a new MacBook, iPad, and Apple TV for the classroom while every student received an iPad to call their own.
Both students and staff say the difference the technology has made is amazing.
"Our students are leaning forward, they are engaged, they are creating, they're much more inquisitive. Hands-on concepts are given to them in a much more meaningful fashion," said Dr. Jacqueline Brooks, Macon County Schools Superintendent.
"They have actually made us learn more faster or be able to to complete our work faster so that way if we have extra time, we'll be able to work on a different subject or study for an upcoming test we might have," said Colby Toliver, a senior at Notasulga High School.
As the school year began though, a stipulation was discovered that required each device to be insured with a small fee so students would be allowed to take them home.
For some, that wasn't an issue. But for many families in Macon County, one of the poorest areas of Alabama, a $50 iPad was still too much to ask for.
That's why McGregor decided to donate nearly $25,750 to help cover that cost for nearly 600 families and their students.
"For a student not to be able to have his iPad or her iPad to take home at night to get their homework up over the weekend, puts them at a great disadvantage," McGregor said.
McGregor says if he had things his way, the casino would be open today to get even more money flowing into Macon County. However, he's taking the time to get things right so his business can be around for the long haul.
"Very few times in life, as you know, do you get a second opportunity to make a first impression. This is one of those rare times and I want to make sure when we reopen that everything from the facility, to our employees, our equipment, everything is 100-percent, top notch," he said.
According to McGregor, nearly 5,000 job applications have been received since the court ruling that is allowing Victoryland to reopen. A definite date for that reopening is expected sometime in the next two weeks.
In the meantime, McGregor is betting on education as part of the future of Macon County. Now when school ends, learning doesn't have to end as well.
"Our English, our history, our everything is online so it helps a lot with taking them after 3 p.m. cause after 3 p.m., we're just at home doing nothing. We don't have no paper to study from cause everything is now in e-mail and online," said Jybrieka Lindsay, a senior at Notasulga High School.
The iPad isn't just helping with consuming knowledge but also increasing with productivity as well.
Lindsay is a dual-enroll student, taking classes at the high school and college level at the same time and says the iPad helps her learn more, do more and is now on her way to achieve more than was possible before.
State Representative Pebblin Warren also presented the schools with a $4,000 check from a fundraiser to cover the remaining costs.
Brooks says those costs are also lower compared to traditional textbooks.
"There's no need to invest in textbooks that are going to be obsolete in a few days or a few years. We want books that are living documents, that change as current events change, that change as scientific discoveries change. We can do that with e-books," she said.
Students will be able to begin taking their iPads home with them when they return from Christmas Break.
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