The North Judson-San Pierre School Corporation will officially let students take their digital devices home next year. The school board recently authorized school officials to proceed with an updated lease agreement with Apple.
Treasurer Dalton Tunis said it’ll increase the number of devices, so that students will be able to take them home. “This will assist in closing that learning loss gap, and it’ll increase digital learning,” Tunis told board members.
The lease was approved, even though the school corporation didn’t have an exact dollar amount or lease agreement yet. But Superintendent Dr. Annette Zupin said it won’t exceed the $60,000 that N.J.-S.P.’s been budgeting. “But we need to move forward with it because we anticipate that lease being signed prior to our next board meeting because we need to get those devices here for the summertime,” she explained.
Now that devices will be going home, information about how to take care of them was added to the updated technology plan approved by the school board last month.
Zupin said most of the corporation plans will only have minor changes. But N.J.-S.P. may be looking to add a new reporting app to the bullying to the bullying prevention and intervention plan in the future. “It’s a good app for reporting bullying, and even not just bullying,” she said. “Students who are in need and have crises going on, it’s a good reporting tool, and it goes into the administrators’ box. So I think this is something we need to explore – very low cost.”
Zupin said the school board will have to take public comments on its continuous learning plan next week, in order for the school corporation to remain eligible for upcoming rounds of federal COVID-19 relief. No changes are planned from the one approved at the start of the school year.
