By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
The Hays USD 489 school board is requesting further information on the cost of purchasing Chromebooks for the Hays Middle School.
Middle school and elementary school students currently use iPads, which are set to be replaced at the HMS in the fall.
The board requested the district study the use of Chromebooks. A report on that study was presented at the school board meeting Monday night.
Select classes at O’Loughlin, Hays Middle School and the Learning Center were involved in the study this fall.
Teachers found having keyboards was an advantage, especially when the students were answering essay questions.
However, they struggled with the the Chromebooks’ ability to annotate PDFs. Instead of printing paper copies of worksheets, teachers send PDF copies of the worksheets to students on their iPads. The students then complete the worksheets digitally on their devices.
The teachers, however, found the Chromebook software made working with the PDFs more difficult than the iPads.
Nathan Purdue, HMS science teacher, said he appreciated the USB ports on the Chromebooks because they allowed them to use Vernier lab tools.
Middle school students in the study were surveyed about the Chromebooks, and the majority said they preferred using the iPads. However, they liked having a keyboard for typing. They also said the Chromebook’s ability to access and submit files in Canvas was frustrating and time consuming.
Gina Johnson, O’Loughlin fifth-grade teacher, said her students also struggled with working with PDFs. She also thought the current software the district is using was easier to use for lesson planning. The Chromebooks that the students used in the study did not have rear-facing cameras as the iPads do. She said the students struggled taking photos for assignments because this feature was absent.
Scott Summers, technology director, said the Chromebooks worked better when fully integrated with Google products.
There would be additional costs if the district purchased Chromebooks, Summers noted in his report. This included a yearly cost of $7 per student, per year for device monitoring software. An additional activation fee of $1,500 would also be needed. This would be per building. PDF annotation/free-hand drawing tools would cost $3,000 per building per year. Device management would be required by Google at a one-time cost of $25 per Chromebook.
Board members Greg Schwartz and Lance Bickle asked Summers if he had contacted other schools that are using Chromebooks to determine if the problems the teachers and students encountered could be resolved. Summers said he had not.
Schwartz made a motion directing the administration to bring back a side-by-side cost comparison for Chromebooks versus other devices the district was proposing to purchase. The comparison should be to the board at least one week week before the board was to consider purchasing new devices for HMS.
Schwartz further asked Summers to contact area schools that are using Chromebooks to identify ways the district might solve some of the issues it encountered in the study.
The motion was approved with only board member, Paul Adams, abstaining.
Summers also reported on the roll out of new Dell computers at Hays High School in the fall.
He said repairs were down significantly compared to previous years.
Ninety percent of the staff surveyed stated the device overall is meeting the instructional needs of their classrooms. The most significant concern with the new computers was problems with connectivity.
Summers said the tech staff reviewed the network and removed and blocked all Samsung and iPhone users from the network. This significantly improved connectivity. The technology team also plans to map the high school to determine the areas that are having the most online traffic.
In other business: the board:
• Approved the 2017-18 audit report
• Approved 2019-20 Hays High School curriculum revisions
• Heard a report on a reduction in driver’s education fees
