The Knox Community School Board members discussed the purchase of Chrome Books for everyday student use.
Director of Technology Jim Landrum explained that the operating system will be a little different that what the students are used to with their MacBook Air devices.
“We don’t put a lot of things on the devices themselves anymore,” said Landrum. “The students don’t really need a lot of extra stuff. The ability to use programs like Microsoft Word, Office, Excel – word processing, power point presentations and spreadsheets – it’s built into the Google Operating System.”
The cost of the Chrome Books is less than half of the cost of the Macs. Landrum said each device is about $300 apiece which includes warranty and maintenance costs.
Teachers would continue to use Macs. Some of the devices currently being used by students will be used as spare computers.
Superintendent Dr. William Reicchart said the purchase would be made with student user fees.
“We’re collecting $100,000 that we’re using toward the MacBooks and instead we’ll put that $100,000 toward these and over the course of three years they’ll be completely paid off,” said Dr. Reichhart. “There’s nothing that will come out of Capital Projects. The only thing that we do have to think about is the initial payment. We’ll have to somehow come up with $300,000 and that will be paid back over three years. We could take that out of the Rainy Day Fund knowing that it’s going to replenish itself or out of our cash balance, whichever the board would decide. We can revisit that in the future.”
Director of Curriculum and Instruction Peggy Shidaker noted that Chrome Books have come a long way in being able to be a good device for testing. The testing vendor is now supporting Chrome Books so the students would be able to gain better access to complete necessary testing.
The school board unanimously approved the purchase. Students will be using the Chrome Books beginning in the 2018-2019 school year.
