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The Knoxville School Board continues to look into adding technology advancements in the district including the possibility of implementing a one-to-one laptop program. The board has met with Apple Education representatives to find out how the leasing program works and has been in touch with other districts in Iowa that have such programs in place. A trip to the Van Meter School District, where a laptop program has been in place for three years now, was scheduled for Tuesday but has been rescheduled for late February. Superintendent Dr. Randy Flack says the goal is to have laptops available to each student in grades 6-12 by mid-fall of the next school year and they will be adding technology to the elementary schools as well.
Dr. Flack says funding for the laptop program won’t be clear until the end of February when the bids are received from the proposed energy efficiency projects and they receive word from their bond consultant on how anticipated revenues from the sales tax dollars can be spent.
With Apple’s one-to-one laptop program, each computer is leased for 4 years and once students graduate their computers will then be passed down to the youngest class and rotated through. Dr. Flack says all laptops will be turned in for the summer to be cleaned out, updated and returned to them in the fall. He says from what he has heard from other districts students take the responsibility of maintaining their laptops very seriously and is confident that will be the case in Knoxville as well.