The Fox C-6 School District has ordered 2,684 Chromebooks for the 2024-2025 school year.
Board of Education members voted unanimously March 5 to pay $657,794.72 for the Chromebooks. The district will use Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to pay for them, according to board documents.
JP Prezzavento, Fox’s chief technology and communication officer, said about 900 of the Chromebooks will be distributed to incoming sixth grade students, 900 will go to incoming freshmen and the rest will be used at the district’s elementary schools.
“It is important to purchase these devices on a consistent replacement cycle,” he said. “From the lens of our secondary one-to-one initiative, we need to plan to deploy Chromebooks to incoming sixth grade students and incoming ninth grade students each year. It is also important to have a regular cycle of refreshing devices at our elementary schools so students and staff members have reliable devices to use for classwork.”
Prezzavento said the board was expected on Tuesday, after the Leader deadline, to approve the purchase of 700 more Chromebooks for an additional $150,500 using an Emergency Connectivity Fund grant to fund the purchase.
Fox will pay for the 2,684 Chromebooks up front and then will be reimbursed with the ESSER funds, but the district will not be billed for the Chromebooks purchased using the grant, Prezzavento said.
The district had planned to spend up to $500,000 of operating funds to purchase Chromebooks last year in a cost-cutting move that also included eliminating 27 teaching positions and two administrative positions through attrition and reducing the budget for its school buildings.
However, Fox did buy 1,900 Chromebooks for $415,625 in March 2023, using ESSER funds. Those Chromebooks went to elementary schools and secondary students.
Prezzavento said Fox officials wanted to buy more Chromebooks last year but put off the expenditure in order to best use the ESSER funds.
“This ESSR Chromebook purchase was deferred to this fiscal year to maximize the number of devices purchased based on the ESSR funds available at the end of the grant cycle,” he said.
Prezzavento said Chromebooks typically may be used for three to five years, depending on how much they are used.
He said the Fox district will collect Chromebooks from eighth grade students and graduating seniors at the end of this school year, and the devices will be assessed, so those in good condition can be redistributed to elementary schools and held in reserve for secondary students.
“Keeping an inventory of devices is important because it allows us to quickly deploy devices to new students or issue loaners should a Chromebook need to come in for repair,” Prezzavento said.
He said it is important for students to have access to Chromebooks for a variety of reasons.
“These devices allow students to be connected to a wide variety of multimedia content, including digital textbooks and other digital curricular resources,” he said. “Additionally, these devices allow students to complete assignments digitally and demonstrate their learning in a variety of digital formats. Also, most of the assessments students take on an annual basis are online, and these devices are used to conduct those assessments.”