Austintown schools look to tweak chromebook program after inaugural year
By ROBERT CONNELLY
AUSTINTOWN
Austintown school officials will make some changes to the HP Chromebook program after its initial year ends.
School officials have begun to collect about 2,800 Chromebooks distributed to students earlier this year. An additional 200 laptops went to staff, who can use them during the summer if they are continuing with the district next school year, said Tom Ventresco, district technology coordinator.
The district spent about $1.1 million last summer in purchasing 3,000 HP Chromebooks, using Google software, and carts.
At a recent Austintown Board of Education work-session meeting, assistant Superintendent Jeremy Batchelor said the board could vote this summer to waive the $20 general- supply fee if a student at Fitch High School or Austintown Middle School purchases the $50 insurance plan for having a Chromebook.
Another potential change is that families could opt not to take the insurance plan, but if the device was stolen or broken, the family would have to pay the full cost of repairing or replacing the laptop.
“That is the request we’d like to bring forward,” Batchelor said.
Ventresco said of about 2,800 distributed to students, about 180 had cracked screens or repairs covered under the warranty and six were reported stolen. Furthermore, four of the six stolen laptops were found. Also there was 99 percent participation at AMS and 80 percent participation at Fitch, with about 200 graduating seniors not signing up for one.
“I couldn’t be happier about [the first year]. Every kid has [his or her]Chromebook and has it in class and using it,” Ventresco said this week. “The real challenge is next year, we’re going to be out of warranty, so making sure these things are fixed ... the goal is to keep these in kids’ hands.”
Getting cases to every student who has a Chromebook is a goal for next year. Both Batchelor and Ventresco said that partnerships the schools have with businesses could lead to sponsored cases. Ventresco said these are kids, however, and things will happen.
He gave an example of one damaged Chromebook in need of a repair was a result of a student’s sister sitting on it.
Ventresco said the operating platform will be updated over the summer. It hasn’t been updated since the Chromebooks were rolled out because an update would have taken down the at-home filter the schools run on the laptops to block kids from inappropriate websites.
“Kids are using these things as tools and relying on them,” Ventresco said.