CCISD distributes laptops to district junior high and high school students
By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
Beginning this school year, students in grades 6-12 will receive a laptop to use at home and at school as part of a new technology initiative at Copperas Cove Independent School District.
The district began distributing laptops to students at the junior highs and high school last week as part of an initiative to make technology access more equitable for students.
Students in grades Pre-K through 5th grade will also have laptops assigned to them for use with class assignments, but those devices will not leave the campus and will instead remain in their classrooms.
The district’s plan is to issue devices to the students for the school year, and then collect when the school year ends, fixing and cleaning for checkout the next school year. The hope is to eventually be able to offer the devices to students when they are graduating, according to CCISD Director of Technology Earl Parcell.
Parcell said that this was a tremendous undertaking and that it has been quite the journey getting to this point.
Students and parents alike at Copperas Cove Junior High School were excited about the laptops on Monday afternoon.
Incoming sixth-grader Dominic Wilson was glad to have a laptop to help him stay on top of his assignments. Wilson was a straight-A student in his previous grade and plans to continue that as he starts junior high.
Juan Diego Corona is also an incoming sixth-grader who was waiting to pick up his laptop. His mother, Larissa Hall, said that she liked that the laptops were CIPA compliant and liked how the district was issuing laptops to each student.
Hall said that the family just moved to Copperas Cove from Cedar Park due to rising costs of rent and expenses.
“It’s just so much and we just thought, ‘Okay, where can we go to where we better fit in, even with the financial [impact] of what’s come last year, and to be here right now and know that two laptops are going to be given out to them to be able to use, it takes a whole load off that expectation because then we can work on what we need to work on you as the home and the family and the move,” Hall said. “I know they're taken care of, and they are able to do their work and no excuses, so it's great.”
With this new initiative, the district is providing laptops to approximately 4,000 students to take home with them. One of the important features of these laptops is that they are compliant with the Children’s Internet Protection Act or CIPA so that parents do not have to worry about the type of websites their child visits on the district-issued laptops.
The laptops are Windows books, similar to Chromebooks but equipped with Microsoft Office 365 to allow students to use Word and the Cloud for any assignments.
The devices cost $330 a piece, but parents had the option to purchase an insurance plan for $25 that will cover any loss or damage to the device. Of the students and parents who have already picked up a laptop, approximately 90 percent of them have opted for the insurance plan, according to Communications Director Wendy Sledd.
Sledd said that students are not required to get a school laptop, but it is encouraged due to the security of the school district network and student information.
CCHS principal Jimmy Shuck explained further, in a message to parents of high schoolers.
“We are encouraging students to use CCISD laptops while at school. The reason for this is the ongoing ransomware attacks school districts are experiencing. Judson ISD paid $547,000.00 in a recent ransomware attack,” Shuck wrote. Starting next week, CCHS will only be checking out laptops by appointment only.
Parcell said that it wasn’t the district’s original intent to set out offering laptops to every student, but called the funding sources a “silver lining” of the pandemic.
“So much of what we have today in the instructional services side of the house is online,” Parcell explained. “There's so much that you can do with technology to enhance the learning that it's important that we get the hardware out there to them, so you're up to something good there. The device is only so much- what we do with it and how we use it is far more important, but we can't get to that point unless we get the devices out there in the people's hand.”
Parcell said that in talking with his peers in the K-12 technology world, the amount of damage or loss seen or expected is five to eight percent when a district does a one-to-one initiative, like CCISD is partially doing. The district technicians will utilize every component of the devices, even if they are broken, so nothing goes to waste.
The district is using various funding sources like ESSER II and ESSER III funds and the CARES Act funds as well as Operation Connectivity (through the Texas Education Agency) and local funds to purchase the laptops.
In addition to the laptops, the district does also loan out mobile hotspots for internet connectivity for students in need. The district also set up multiple WiFi towers and stations at all campuses and district buildings, so students and parents have another option for connecting to the internet. Even the Home side of the Bulldawg stadium is considered a WiFi hotspot.