Chromebooks coming to Polk classes soon

Published 6:53 pm Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Board members of Polk County Schools Monday, Feb. 13 showed no disapproval of Superintendent Bill Miller and Technology Coordinator Dave Scherping moving forward with a plan to place 350 additional Chromebooks in the high school by spring.
Administrators placed about 50 Chromebooks, devices that allow students to access the Internet and work in the Google cloud system, in high school and middle school classrooms this fall.
“We have for a couple of years now been trying to figure out what we want to do in regard to technology for our students and our schools. Up to this point we had not figured out a good path for us to go down,” Scherping said. “Students are now writing their papers on their phones while they are traveling to sporting games, so the technology is something they would be used to.”
When no board members raised concerns about the program moving forward, board chair Geoffrey Tennant said, “I guess, gentleman, the word is full speed ahead.”
Scherping said the total cost for about 375 laptops would be around $150,000.
Miller and Scherping plan to use federal Race to the Top money to fund the program, along with some already budgeted technology funding.

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