When the Elvehjem Elementary School parents who raised $200,000 for a playground outside the school last year started looking for a new fundraising project, they thought of the teacher on the itty-bitty chair.

She’s someone like Julie Fitzpatrick, a first-grade teacher at Elvehjem who uses a nearly decade-old classroom computer to track attendance, fill out report cards and answer parents’ e-mails. The bulky monitor and sluggish hard drive sit on a desk sized for the 6- and 7-year-olds who also use the terminal, one of two PCs in Fitzpatrick’s room.

 Even if the teacher wanted to bring more modern equipment from home, like a laptop, she couldn’t access the Internet with it. There’s no wireless connection.

 "I go in to take my son to his first day of school, and I see these two ancient-looking computers with floppy disc drives," said Brian Johnson, vice-president of operations for a Madison high-tech firm and a parent in the group LVM Dreams Big Technology, which hopes to raise $20,000 this summer to buy the school some of the latest classroom tools: document cameras that can project computer and other images on a screen, an interactive "whiteboard" called a Smart Board, and a message board with an LCD screen at the school entrance to announce the day’s activities. They hope to come up with another $5,000 for grants aimed at teachers wanting to try new technologies.

 While polling teachers, tabulating tech needs and seeing what other schools are using, the parents’ group made another discovery: The Madison School District was doing the same thing districtwide. Earlier this month the district released a draft of its three-year technology plan, a comprehensive look at how current technology tools could better serve Madison teachers and students. But the plan hinges on finding creative ways to curb costs and create collaborations across the community, said Kurt Kiefer, the district’s chief information officer.

“We know we have to do this,” said Kiefer. "We have to move in this direction. It’s the 21st century, and technology is part of our lives."

Board Vice President Lucy Mathiak praised the plan but voiced concerns about paying for it in "very difficult budget times."

"Right now there are a lot of yellow lights on everything," she said.

"If and when we have the money, we now have a plan," said board member Marj Passman. "You have a group of students come into your classroom right now who know more technology than our teachers know. And they expect to use that technology. It connects them to the outside world."

Kiefer notes that funding the plan will require low- and no-cost solutions — such as $300 portable netbooks for student use instead of computer lab PCs, or tapping into free "cloud computing" software. Or recruiting parents like the Elvehjem group — which, after raising money for its own school, hopes to spread its tech movement districtwide.

"What’s neat is that the district is saying, yes, we want people to work with us," said Eric Hegge, a second- and third-grade teacher at Elvehjem with a master’s degree in instructional technology who is working with the parent group.

Bruce Weldum, a mechanical engineer with a son at Elvehjem, agreed.

 "I have a first-grader," he said. "I’m investing this time so that when he goes to junior high and high school, he’ll have the technology there."

If you go

What: The Madison school board’s Planning and Development Committee meeting will review a new draft of the district’s proposed three-year technology plan

When: 5 p.m. June 1

Where: Doyle Administration Building, 545 W. Dayton St., Room 103 and online at http://mediaprodweb.madison.k12.wi.us/