The Demopolis City Schools Board of Education approved three bids for the upcoming technology upgrades for the school system in a called meeting Wednesday afternoon.

Jennings Service Company was awarded the installation of equipment in the schools with a bid of $294,410. The board approved buying speakers for part of the classroom upgrades from TekLinks, who came in with a bid of $240,217.25. The final bid, which was for carts for the teachers to keep the new equipment in, was from Xerox Audio Visual for $28,800.

The board also approved financing $2,029,903.21 with either EMC or Cisco pending no down payment, no early payoff fee and a 12-month payment deferral, as well as approval from Chief School Financial Officer Evelyn James and attorney Alex Braswell.

In the Wednesday meeting, the board also approved the statewide across-the-board raise in the 2013-14 salary matrix of two percent for school employees.

In other business, the board did the following:

•Approved the hiring of Rebekah Argo as the Demopolis High School Spanish teacher

•Approved the charter bus contract with Meridian Coach and Travel