BOE to Consider Chromebook Purchases

The New Britain Board of Education will consider Chromebook purchases along with other business at its June 1, 2020 regular meeting.

The school district is proposing that the Board of Education approve three purchases for Chromebook devices totaling $1,331,352.

One proposal is apparently to repurpose $260,000 in grant funding to purchase Chromebooks for Northend, Smith, Smalley, DiLoreto, Pulaski and Slade schools, “to reduce the gap, increase equity and student engagement in our schools, and to ensure students have access to online platform to practice skills during distance learning.”

The second is apparently to use $154,352.00 in Commissioner’s Network grant funding to, “replace those older devices that were distributed to students as a result of the school closure.”

The third proposal is apparently to reallocate $917,000 in funding, “for the purchase of 2,500 touch screen chromebooks as well as an additional 500 non-touch screen chromebooks.” The school district says that,

This effort, along with the purchases approved in the previous board meeting and the high school laptop donation will allow the district to achieve a chromebook/laptop for every K-12 student for the coming school year.

The Board meeting is to be held online at 6:00pm on June 1st. The school district says that, “Members of the public may view a live broadcast of the meeting online via the livestream link: https://video.csdnb.org/show?video=1319f802ff39,” adding that,

Individuals seeking public participation may join the queue beginning at 6:00 PM by calling 1-260-383-1095 and entering PIN: 832 855 051#. Callers are asked to wait with their phones on mute until they are recognized to speak.