How District 203 plans to buy more students laptops
The junior high technology fee in Naperville Unit District 203 is likely to increase next school year as the district aims to provide Chromebooks to all students in sixth, seventh and eighth grades.
The school board is set to vote on increasing the annual technology fee from $29 to $50 during a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the administrative center at 203 W. Hillside Road.
The move would allow the district to move forward with the second year of its digital learning initiative, which began last fall by giving Dell Chromebook 11 laptops to about 5,710 students at Naperville Central and Naperville North high schools and introducing use of the Google Apps for Education system.
Also this year, some teams of teachers and students at Kennedy and Washington junior highs have been given Chromebooks, and iPads previously used at the high schools have been redistributed to elementary schools.
The high school technology fee was increased from $29 to $50 last year in advance of the Chromebook rollout, and now the board is ready to approve the same change at the junior high level.
Educators say the digital learning initiative aims to help students gain problem solving, collaboration and research skills they couldn't otherwise practice in a "traditional" classroom. Providing each junior high student a personal laptop for school and home use is expected to increase engagement in academics and give equal access to digital content, administrators say.
School board member Kristin Fitzgerald said District 203's technology fees remain "pretty low" compared with fees in similar districts, and she hopes the district will be able to adjust it if costs rise.
"I look at the technology as an area that is growing and hard to anticipate," Fitzgerald said during the board's last meeting Feb. 1.
Superintendent Dan Bridges said administrators review the fees annually. So if more money is needed to keep up with technology trends, the fees can be increased.
For now, the junior high technology fee is the only increase suggested. The fee is set to remain at $50 for high school students, at $12 for early childhood and half-day kindergarten students and at $29 for all-day kindergartners and elementary students.
The other fee change to be voted on Tuesday is a decrease in the high school fee for towels provided for swimming and physical education. The fee of $10.25 for freshmen, juniors and seniors is set to decrease to $7, while the $7 fee charged to sophomores is proposed to decrease to $3.50.
Chief Financial Officer Brad Cauffman said the district got a better deal in its contract for the towels and is passing along savings to parents.