Beginning with the 2003-04 school year, we will be implementing "pilot groups" of students at all three of our high schools (Apollo, DCHS, Beacon Central) in which students will be assigned personal laptop computers for their use at school and at home. We know that kids learn in a lot of different ways, and this is one opportunity to take advantage of both our students' interest in technology, as well as the literally unlimited resources that are available in that area. Four vendors have been selected to provide laptops to be evaluate: Dell, Apple, IBM and HP.  We will create stringent criteria by which we are choosing the final vendor for full implementation. 

Teachers selected to participate in this pilot program (based on student pilot groups) are receiving training - and their own laptops - over the summer. Our long-term goal is to begin providing personal laptops to all incoming freshmen - hopefully as early as the 2004-05 school year - until eventually every high school student has one! Our goal is that by doing this, we will be infusing new tools into our classrooms that will help take our kids to the next levels of learning while at the same time lessening workloads.  (Please note that the initial funding for this initiative will come from one-time money, which could not be used for recurring expenses.)