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Ohio County Considering Chromebooks for All Students

Officials Weigh Extensive Cost of Wear and Tear on Devices

Photo Provided Warwood Middle School sixth-grade students use Chromebooks in teacher Mark Lindsay’s classroom. In front, from left, are Zachary Anderson and Katelyn Bishop. In the second row are Maxwell Wiley, Kailen Barnhart and Jacob Huntington.

WHEELING — Most students in at least one West Virginia county soon will be getting a Chromebook to take home with them for their own use, but officials in Ohio County Schools aren’t yet on board with the idea.

They suspect the wear and tear on the devices by students could lead to excessive costs after the initial purchase, according to Superintendent Kim Miller.

Monongalia County Schools in Morgantown plans to start handing out Chromebooks to all students in third grade and above after the first of the year. Many students in Ohio County already are using Chromebooks and iPads in the classroom, but the school district isn’t yet ready to let students take them home, Miller said.

“We’re not there yet, because we wanted to make sure we had a plan in place first for replacement and repairs,” she said. “We’ll be there in the future. All of our students have access to computers in the classroom all the time. All of the classrooms have access to iPads and laptops. … It’s that upkeep. It would be one thing to just buy the computers, but then there’s keeping them up and buying replacements.”

In Monongalia County Schools, Clay-Battelle High School already has been using Chromebooks for about three years, according to Chris Urban, director of technology.

The school district now has purchased 9,000 Chromebooks to distribute to all students in third grade and above, complete with case and a charger. Each Chromebook is priced at less than $200, resulting in an initial expenditure by the school district of about $1.8 million.

Most of the computers — about 1,800 of them — are on their way to Morgantown High School, Urban said.

The Chromebooks ordered already have arrived in Morgantown, but most schools are opting to wait until after the holiday break to distribute them. Once they receive their Chromebook, the student will keep the same device as long as they are a student in that school.

Urban acknowledged that permitting students to take home their devices home could result in frequent problems, but that Monongalia County Schools is prepared to deal with them.

“They’re kids. There are going to be issues,” she said. “I won’t be surprised if we have an issue or two every day. But as long as any damage is accidental or reparable we can handle it. If the damage was willful … if they threw it or stepped on it … then they will be responsible for replacing it.”

Urban, though, doesn’t expect there will be a overwhelming need to replace or repair Chromebooks based on the experiences thus far with Clay-Battelle students.

“They’ve had them for three years, and we’ve had two (devices) ‘walk away’ during that time,”she said. “But we have the ability to lock them down when they go missing. After we locked down these devices, both magically made their way back to the schools.”

Monongalia County Schools has set up its own system for distributing the devices that is similar to checking out a library book, as each Chromebook has a sticker with a number on it that is recorded along with the student’s name who received it.

“If it comes up missing, we would just lock it down,” Urban said.

And iPads, Chromebooks and other forms of technology aren’t yet replacing the printed word, as Miller said traditional textbooks still are being used in Ohio County Schools.

“But I do have some teachers who have them read novels instead of the stories in the textbook,” she said.

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