Every Boise student will get a laptop this fall. The reason? Another possible outbreak
The Boise School District has yet to unveil its full plan to reopen in the fall amid the global coronavirus pandemic. But parents can count on one new feature — a personal laptop or iPad for every student.
This spring’s COVID-19 outbreak forced Boise to close all of its school buildings March 16 and transition to online learning for the rest of the semester. It marked an unprecedented transition few, if any, school districts were prepared for.
But the district aims to be ready for any possible outbreaks next school year. And that starts with purchasing laptops and iPads for all of the district’s 25,000 students, said Brian Walker, who led the district’s plan to provide one-to-one devices for students.
“One of the lessons we have learned is we have to be prepared for every scenario, and one those scenarios is if we’re shut down as an entire school district,” Walker said. “We need the ability to offer our educational services to all kids. And that would be, as we saw this spring, in an online format.”
Boise Schools approved the purchase of laptops and iPads on Monday night as part of its $358 million overall budget for the 2020-21 school year.
It will buy 12,300 Chromebook laptops for students in first through 12th grades, and 800 iPads for kindergarteners and preschoolers. Those devices come with a $3 million price tag and supplement the district’s existing supply.
Boise Schools will dedicate $1 million of its $3.8 million federal relief funds for laptops and iPads. Another $1.2 million will come from state technology funding it receives, and $800,000 from the district’s information technology budget, Walker said.
Parents identified the online learning experience as one of their top concerns in a recent school district survey, with 67% of them listing it as their largest disappointment from the spring.
Boise Schools spokesperson Dan Hollar said the district plans to do better in the fall, and providing laptops to every student is part of that.
“The online learning that we are planning for fall is certainly more robust, more rigorous and certainly in line with the curriculum we offer in the schools,” Hollar said. “That’s our intent, and that’s our goal.”
Without a laptop for all students, Boise couldn’t ensure everyone could access online classes in the spring. So, like many districts, it declined to make those classes or assignments mandatory. Instead, it froze students’ grades as of March 16 and provided optional learning material online.
Online work could only help, not hurt, a student’s grade — similar to extra credit.
“What we were in in the springtime was emergency remote learning,” Walker said. “(That) and online learning, they are two different things. What we are preparing for as we move forward is true online learning.”
Boise Superintendent Coby Dennis identified additional laptops as one of the district’s largest needs during a May survey with the state education department, which the Idaho Statesman obtained via a public records request.
He wrote 31% of Boise’s students needed a device to access learning material in the survey.
Access to the internet wasn’t as great of a need. He identified 5% of students as needing internet access.
Walker said the school district purchased 500 T-Mobile hotspots in the spring for those students. He added the district plans to use them again and doesn’t believe it needs many more.
Boise follows the Nampa School District in providing a laptop or iPad for all of its students. Nampa handed out its final devices to students last fall, ensuring all of its 14,000 students had a personal laptop or iPad before the coronavirus pandemic hit.
That put Nampa in a strong position when classes went fully online, Nampa spokesperson Kathleen Tuck said. Teachers already had training to host online courses, and students had experience navigating them.
“That put us several steps ahead of most of our neighboring districts,” Tuck said. “It really flattened that learning curve.”
This story was originally published June 9, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
