The Sedona Oak-Creek School District has approved the purchase of 750 Chromebooks through the Emergency Connectivity Fund.
The school district was awarded $339,220 for the purchase of the laptops. This federal fund is aimed at schools and libraries to help provide remote learning during COVID-19. The funds can be put toward reasonable costs of technology equipment and services, such as laptops or tablets, Wi-Fi hotspots and more.
With this purchase, every student will be individually provided a new Chromebook laptop. Of the 750 laptops, 100 will have data plans to be given to students who do not have consistent internet access at home.
SOCSD has provided a laptop for each student for the past few years. But with the increased need for remote learning and the high prices for technology during the pandemic, the school district looked into various grants before applying for the Emergency Connectivity Fund.
Stacey Saravo, SOCSD finance director, and John Parks, SOCSD technology director, have been working on the grant for the past few months. Three different vendors presented for the purchase and with the board’s approval, the school district can begin its purchasing of the new laptops.
“When we went for the grant, we just told them that we do not allow student devices on campus because of security issues,” Parks said. “So we would need one for every student and they said OK.”
By providing students with Chromebooks, teachers and administration will be able to monitor the activity both when the student is in school and at home. Personal laptops and devices would not have allowed this same access for the school district.
“We had invested significantly in Chromebooks due to the pandemic and experienced a high volume of broken Chromebooks upon the end of school return,” Superintendent Dennis Dearden said. “We are very excited to have been approved for this grant.”
The laptops will be purchased and set up for the 2022-23 school year. For the remainder of this year, the school district will be working with what computers they currently own and use for students. The school district also just installed Audio Enhancement technology and interactive smart boards throughout every classroom, which will also benefit remote learning efforts.
