Hempfield Area to get more Chromebooks for next school year

Hempfield Area School District will buy 500 new Chromebook laptops for use by next year’s high school students.

During Monday’s school board meeting, board members unanimously voted to authorize the business office to advertise and seek proposals for the purchase of the Chromebooks. Board member Sonya Brajdic was absent from the meeting.

“We are continuing our practice of ordering 500 new devices at this time of the year for next year’s use,” Superintendent Tammy Wolicki told the Tribune-Review this month. “Ordering now allows time for the shipment to arrive and for the devices to be prepared for the start of school.”

Wolicki noted that, in the past, the order has been given to freshman students for use through their senior year.

The conversation regarding computers for next year’s students came during a year when Chromebook orders have been backed up for several districts, including Hempfield, due to the covid-19 pandemic. Districts across the country have been facing long wait times for computers after scrambling to place orders last summer as the pandemic forced students to learn virtually throughout the year.

At Hempfield, district leaders initially placed an order in July with New York-based Y & S Technologies for 830 touch-screen Chromebooks. By January, the district had still not received that order. District leaders placed a second order that month for 750 Chromebooks to be split between high school freshman and elementary students.

Of those orders, 500 Chromebooks arrived in February for use by elementary students.

“Each elementary school received 100 of the new devices,” Wolicki said. “These devices are used across the grade levels for instruction while at school. The older devices were sent home with students in the event of a need to provide remote-only instruction.”

Once a proposal for the 500 Chromebooks is picked by the board, computers will be paid for through funds from the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief grant program, Wolicki said.