Schools
District 25 Wants Laptops for All of Its Middle School Students
The plan would cost the Arlington Heights school district more than $600,000.
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, IL — As a response to the increase in online testing and individualized learning, Arlington Heights School District 25 wants to pair up each of its middle school students with a laptop computer. Think of it as an early 21st century reinterpretation of the buddy system.
The District 25 school board is planning to spend upwards of $600,000 this year to buy 2,000 Chromebooks to make that idea a reality for students at South and Thomas middle schools, according to a Daily Herald report. Currently, both schools don't have enough laptops for every student, and those computers are managed through a check-out system, the report stated. The laptops also are different models, which can create availability problems if teachers need their entire class to be using the same type of computer, the report added.
The Chromebooks, which cost $288 apiece, isn't the only expense factored into the district's $600,000-plus plan. Officials would be buying cases for the laptops and outfitting charging stations in all the classrooms, the Herald reports. Additional staff hours to implement the plan also are part of the district's bottom line, which is estimated at $627,500, the report stated.
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Although all of the district's sixth- through eighth-graders will be assigned a laptop under the board's plan, the students would not be allowed to take them home, the report stated. The district, however, might revisit this policy down the line, according to the report.
RELATED: Should District 25 Approve a $35M Bond Sale to Fund Additions to 2 Schools? (POLL)
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Funds in the district's technology budget would be used to cover most of the cost of the laptop plan, the report stated. But the board would need to rework next year's main budget—which will be voted on Sept. 22—to accommodate the additional expenditures, the report added.
Despite the district's first day of school being next week, officials would still pair up students and new laptops this school year, the Herald reports. It just would happen later in the year, once the computers were ordered and delivered, and teachers and other staffers were given the proper training, the report stated.
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: (Image via Pixabay.com; logo via Arlington Heights School District 25)
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