Teachers at Seaside's Highland Elementary School hope to cut their computer cords and go wireless with the help of a Silicon Valley computer giant.

The school has been awarded a $30,000 technology grant from Hewlett Packard, district officials announced at a special meeting Monday of Monterey Peninsula Unified School District trustees and city and county representatives.

Highland's grant from Hewlett Packard's Teaching with Technology program is just a piece in the district's partnership with CSU-Monterey Bay to create an environment where students and teachers will be able to use hand-held computers without wires to conduct curriculum-enhancing activities.

Arlene Krebs, director of the Wireless Education and Technology Center at CSU-Monterey Bay, explained university plans to work with MPUSD to create a wireless learning community.

Krebs' said the wireless project is important because it brings cities, educators and the community together. The city of Monterey is also involved with the program to bring wireless education to MPUSD students. Its staff arranged to have schools connected to the city's high-capacity fiber-optic network.

The university plans to work with the school district to also make Seaside's Del Rey Woods wireless. Other schools could also eventually benefit from the program, Krebs said.

Fred Cohn, Monterey's deputy city manager, said he believes it's important for children to learn about technology because they will need it when they start their careers.

MPUSD board President Regena Lauterbach said she thought it was wonderful that Highland received the grant.

"It's just enhancing our educational priorities," she said.

Mary Kipinger, of MPUSD's technology staff, said she believes the use of technology opens the world to students.

"It makes it real and exciting," she said.

Krebs said she is involved in an upcoming wireless community conference supported by CSU-Monterey Bay, the city of Monterey, the Monterey Institute of International Studies and the U.S. Department of Education's Congressional Awards. The conference will be from June 2-4 at the Monterey Conference Center.

Anyone interested in additional information about the conference can check out the Wireless Education and Technology Center's Web site at http://wetec.csumb.edu, or call Krebs at 582-5025.