Chaney iPads expected next year

By Denise Dick

denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Students at the city schools’ Chaney Campus will get new iPads next school year – nearly two years after the district received an Apple grant.

But district officials say that’s not unusual for this type of project.

In October 2014, the district announced that the Chaney Campus, including Rayen Early College Middle School, was awarded an Apple grant to provide an iPad for every student, a MacBook and mini-iPad for every teacher, Apple TVs and accompanying apps and software.

Timothy Filipovich, executive director of teaching and learning, said it follows the time line used by other districts implementing technology and one-student-to-one-technological device policies.

Updates must be made to infrastructure, he said.

The district started meeting with Apple representatives about a year ago to plan implementation, Filipovich said.

Work was required to provide ample bandwidth for all of the devices.

“Part of the grant Chaney received included a wireless update if the district needed it,” said Genie Natale, the district’s educational technology manager.

The district is equipped with wireless capability but sought help from the federal E-Rate program to accomplish the update, Natale said.

“We use Cisco, and Apple wanted to use a different provider,” Filipovich said. “We didn’t want one system at Chaney and another system through the rest of the district.”

The district had to wait to get the E-Rate funding approved.

The cost is $438,000 with the district paying $105,000.

The work at Chaney was done first, and Filipovich said workers are in the testing phase. Teachers will get their devices this spring with professional development on how to incorporate the devices into instruction provided toward the end of the school year.

The devices will be distributed to students when the next school year begins.

The Chaney Campus, which houses a science, technology, engineering and mathematics and a visual and performing arts schools for sixth- through 12-graders and Rayen Early College Middle School, was one of 114 schools to receive grants totaling $100 million over the next few years.

Of those schools, 96 percent of students are eligible for participation in free or reduced-price lunch programs. The schools range in size from 80 students to nearly 1,000 students. Ninety-two percent of the students from Apple partner schools are of Hispanic, black, Native America, Alaskan Native or Asian heritage.