By KENDRA PEEK

Boyle County Board of Education has approved buying 1,470 Dell Chromebooks at $272.75 each, costing the district $400,942.50.

This fall, every student at Boyle County middle and high schools will be assigned a Dell Chromebook 11 at the beginning of the school year, much like they are assigned their regular schoolbooks.

“We really are ready for this,” said Susan Taylor, district technology coordinator. “We’re ready, not just to say, ‘Hey, we’ve got Chromebooks.’ We’re ready because we truly feel and know how it’s going to transform the experiences of our kids.”

The Board of Education has approved buying 1,470 Dell Chromebooks at $272.75 each, costing the district $400,942.50.

“I’ve said this for two years — writing the check is the easy part. The real work comes after,” Taylor said.

It’s after the check that training of students, parents and teachers begins. It will involve training everyone to think of the Chromebooks as more than just a nice device to have access to, but to truly learn how to use them for the classroom and beyond.

The district has planned professional development days this summer that cater to helping teachers see the devices as another tool to use.

It will still be a few years before all elementary school students have computers. Currently, every elementary school class has at least five iPads or iPad minis. Two of the classrooms at Junction City Elementary piloted having a Chromebook for every student during the 2014-2015 school year and those teachers have truly seized that opportunity, Taylor said.

“The beautiful thing about Junction City — we approached them about it with the non-traditional routes, we said, ‘This might help with your non-traditional days.’ Without any prompting from us, those teachers took those devices and, quite literally, you walk in and see the students — they come in, they get their Chromebook, they see what the teacher wants them to do and they go,” she said. “The teachers found the value in it themselves, which, to me, spoke volumes for the Chromebook and the initiative.”

There were also two pilot programs at the high school.

The district’s purchase will include extra devices in case something happens to a student’s computer, whether it is left at home accidentally or malfunctions for some reason.

If a student forgets their device at home or it malfunctions, they can still log on to any device and access their work.

“That’s through the Google Apps for Education. That allows us to manage, so we can push things down to the devices if we want to, we can put certain controls on it, and teachers can select certain applications that they want all their kids to have access to,” Taylor said.

For students who do not have Internet access at home, it is still possible to work on their device, Taylor said. While still at school, the student will simply switch the computer to offline mode and the device will save the files to itself instead of "the cloud."

Chromebooks will not fully replace the traditional pencil and paper, nor should they, she said.

“There has to be a healthy balance. The last thing I want to do is walk down the hallway and see classroom after classroom where the Chromebooks are tucked under the desk, ‘Put them away, we don’t want you to see them.’ On the same hand, we don’t want to see Chromebooks every day and that’s all they do. Even as simple as experiencing testing, of bubbles and sheets — they need that experience. They need the experience writing,” Taylor said. “It’s a tool. It’s not the end-all be-all. It is a tool and a very viable tool in the price and what it can do.”

Teachers at the middle and high schools have Mac Airs, which can also use the Google Apps for Education, making the cross-communiciation seamless.

At the start of the 2015-2016 school year, parents will be asked to sign the acceptable-use policy, which will include language regarding the Chromebooks. There will also be a portion for parents to decide if they want their student to be a day user only, meaning they check the Chromebook out every morning and return it every afternoon, or if they want their student to take the books home every day.

If the parent opts for the child to take their Chromebook home, which Taylor prefers, the parent would become the responsible party for the Chromebooks.

“We want to encourage them to take them home, because we want that ability to flip the classroom, to have access outside the school day. It sounds a lot like the non-traditional day. So when the non-traditional days do hit, it’s seamless,” she said. “When those non-traditional days hit, they’re going to be ready. More ready than they were this year.”