Morrison Elementary students are ahead of the technological curve in the Warren County School System’s effort to go paperless. Every student at the school in grades 3-8 was given a Chromebook on Tuesday.
“The school district is providing every eighth-grade student a Chromebook,” said Morrison principal Kim Cantrell. “We had an anonymous donor provide our students in third through seventh grades with one. We want to thank him for his generosity. I think he realizes an investment in children is an investment in the community. It truly is. We want to thank him for this and everything else he has done for our school.”
While all those students will be allowed to take their laptops home, second-graders will have access to Chromebooks during the school day but will not be allowed to take them home.
Joseph Smith, father of third-grader Katie Smith, expressed his gratitude to the donor who gave his child a Chromebook.
“I don’t know who the donor is, but I would like to thank them,” said Smith. “This donation of Chromebooks puts the whole school on the right path.”
Director of Schools Bobby Cox announced in June laptops would be issued to every eighth-grader in the 2015-16 school year – the first step in transitioning to digital textbooks and increasing the use of technology in the classroom.
According to Cox, the ending cost to provide every one of the district’s 535 eighth-graders with a Chromebook is $195,275.
“We placed $200,000 in the budget,” said Cox. “We are under budget. We have exactly 535 eighth-graders. The Chromebooks, including the GoGuardian filter programs, the cases to help prevent damage and chargers, brought the cost to $365 each.”
The laptops are not gifts. Instead, they are owned by the school district and must be returned.
Katrina Haley, director of information technology with the school system, instructed Morrison Elementary students on how to care for their Chromebooks, the permitted uses, and what will not be tolerated.
“The device to be issued as an educational tool and should only be used in that capacity,” said Haley. “Once the device is issued to the student and his or her family, the student is responsible for it at all times. Students and parent/ guardian are responsible for all items assigned to them at the school level. The School Board may require restitution of property at market value or damages where appropriate.”
The GoGuardian software provides the most advanced filtering, monitoring and theft recovery software available. The software will enable Warren County schools to: 1) see detailed browsing histories of every Chromebook user, 2) View trends in your user searches, videos, docs, apps and extensions, 3) push stolen devices in anti-theft mode, track location, screenshots, keylogs, and webcam pictures, 4) filter content.
“In order to shield students from inappropriate Internet content and safeguard school property, filtering software will be preinstalled on every device,” she said. “Swapping, reconfiguring, or tampering with hardware or existing software is strictly prohibited and will result in disciplinary action. If a device is stolen, it has to be reported immediately and a police report filed.”
Students will not be allowed to keep their Chromebooks over long school breaks such as summer, fall, spring or Christmas breaks. The devices must be brought to school by the child every day. On the day prior to a break, the devices will be taken up by the teacher and redistributed once school begins again.
The second step in the paperless transition, says Cox, will be providing next year’s eighth-graders with Chromebooks, as each of this year’s devices have the students’ names on them and will be used by that particular student as they progress through high school.
“It will take four years before every student in grades 8-12 to have a Chromebook,” said Cox. “At the end of that four years, we’ll look at purchasing them for seventh-graders.” 
 As the Chromebooks are given to this year’s eighth-graders, parents and students will be instructed by Haley as to proper care of the devices, the possible cost to the parents if proper care is not taken, the filters that will monitor use and the punishment for violations. Parents and legal guardians must sign a waiver stating they understand and accept the responsibility.
The process to visit each school and distribute all 535 laptops should be complete after fall break.