Oct 21, 2016 By Cara Host 3 min read

Bethel Park School District spent more than $1.3 million on Google Chromebooks to outfit most of its students, but many of those computers at the high school were in storage for the first month of the school year.

The system to distribute the notebook computers was much too slow, school board members said at their committee meeting Oct. 18.

“The Chromebooks were sitting for a month, and we didn’t get any use out of them,” board member Jim Means said. “Chromebooks have become as essential as textbooks, so it’s really important that we get them out as soon as possible.”

Chromebooks are relatively inexpensive devices that run Google’s operating system.

Under the district’s One-to-One Technology Initiative, most students in seventh through 12th grades receive a Chromebook to use both in the classroom and at home. Chromebooks are also available in the classrooms for most younger students.

Independence Middle School distributed most of the computers just prior to the start of school, at a cost of about $2,000, since the district needed extra personnel. The cost to distribute the Chromebooks at the high school was nothing, since school officials waited until the start of school to begin the process. But the high school process also caused more headaches.

“Clearly, we need to get much better at distributing them,” said Janet O’Rourke, Bethel Park’s director of secondary education.

Some students did not receive their devices until Oct. 6, a full month after the start of school. Part of the delay was caused by students failing to submit the necessary forms on time.

Parent Wendy Yantek, though, told the board she returned the paperwork for her sons’ Chromebooks early, but their homeroom teachers would not distribute the computers until everyone in the class submitted the forms.

For next year, school officials said they are likely to start the process in the summer. The cost to do it that way will be about $11,500, which also includes costs to collect the computers at the end of the year for both the high school and Independence Middle School. Alternatively, the district could refrain from collecting the computers at the end of the school year, allowing students to keep their Chromebooks until they graduate, but that carries added risk for damage and loss.

Superintendent Joseph Pasquerilla also urged school board members to start thinking about additional investments the district will need to make to replace the Chromebooks as the devices reach the end of their useful life.

The first Chromebooks that the district purchased in 2014 may need to be replaced in the next 18 months or so. Bethel Park School District will probably have to spend at least $1.3 million to replace the computers every four or five years, Pasquerilla said.

“It’s an engaging tool and I’ve been very impressed with how (the Chromebooks) are being used,” he said. “It’s an expensive and necessary tool for students and teachers.”