All seventh and eighth graders in the Appleton school district now also have their own laptops.
The district used recurring funding from a 2014 referendum to buy more Chromebooks for this school year.
Chief Financial Officer Greg Hartjes says in 2014, their goal was to buy Chromebooks for all high school students, and one for every four middle school students. But since then, he says they’ve gotten such a good price on new Chromebooks that they were able to expand.
Hartjes says the laptops give teachers a chance to incorporate more technology into the classroom. He believes it also levels the playing field between students that don’t have their own laptops, and ones that do.
The referendum gives the district up to $5 million a year to spend on ongoing maintenance and technology upgrades.
