Palatine District 15 to give students laptops next year

For the first time, every sixth- through eighth-grade student in Palatine Township School District 15 will be given a laptop next school year to aid in their education.

With the $1 million plan, District 15 is now aligned with neighboring school districts that offer laptops, such as Wheeling Township Elementary District 21, Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54 and Arlington Heights Elementary District 25.

"It really is the norm rather than the exception that junior high and high school students have (one-to-one) access," Assistant Superintendent Matt Barbini said.

The work to get computers into the hands of sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders began more than two years ago when the district implemented a pilot program with just one teacher from each district school.

Barbini said the feedback from the program was so overwhelmingly positive that they expanded the pilot to 60 teachers this year and found the results to be just as good.

"Our kids want them, our staff wants them and our parents are very supportive of them," he said. "It will directly benefit and engage our students."

The slightly more than $1 million the school board approved Wednesday will purchase 4,400 Lenovo N23 Chromebook computers, protective cases and warranties.

School board President Lisa Szczupaj said she is excited about the positive benefits the technology could bring. She said district officials and teachers in the pilot program gave a presentation last month on the benefits, including students working collaboratively and with faster access to information.

"The expectations for me are very high for a good level of success," Szczupaj said.

Barbini said the district is benefiting by not jumping into 1:1 laptop programs until now.

"So many districts have taken this courageous leap before us and have learned lessons already," he said. "We're ahead by being behind."

A few lessons the district won't have to learn include having an organized deployment of the devices near the start of school and knowing how much of the internet they will allow the students to access.

Barbini said there may be no way to completely prevent a student from accessing inappropriate material online, but a content filtering system will be installed on every device.