WALES — Through a combination of reshuffled machines and new lease contracts, RSU 4 is looking to become one of the first school districts in the state to give computers to every student in grades kindergarten to 12.

“Typically, being cutting edge is pretty cool; this is not intended to be a cutting-edge decision,” RSU 4 Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said Monday. “It’s about readiness. Our kids are ready, our teachers are ready. Waiting another year is just not a good idea.”

The district, which serves Sabattus, Litchfield and Wales, already gives computers to every student in grades six to 12. Hodgkin called the timing of the expansion next fall ideal — and coming at no extra cost.

The school board’s plan to get computers in the hands of 1,400 students:

* Use $125,000 currently spent to lease MacBook Air laptops for the high school — a contract that’s expiring — and spend that same amount on a lease for new, cheaper Chrome Books for the high school and new iPads for grades kindergarten to three.

Seventh- and eighth-graders will receive new computers under the state’s Maine Learning Technology Initiative program. Sixth-graders already have Lenovo laptops.

The district would buy those retiring high school MacBooks for $45 apiece, outfit the fourth and fifth grades and then sell the rest for $125 and $200, covering the cost of the laptops and creating a pool of money for repairs.

It’s all part of the budget before voters next month.

What’s key is taking advantage of the expiring lease, an expense the district has gotten used to paying the last four years, Hodgkin said.

“I think there are some people opposed to it, I think there are some people opposed to it right now,” he said. “Our response is we can’t afford not to do it right now.”

Norma-Jean Audet, the district’s director of Information Technology, said teachers have spent the past 18 months training to adapt lesson plans in preparation for every student having a computer.

“They are so excited,” Audet said. “When the board approved (computer use) to expand, there were actually teachers crying in the hall, which I’ve never seen before. They’re that excited because they know how important this tool is and how important the timing was.”

Jeff Mao, the state’s Learning Technology Policy director, said fewer than a handful of districts have given computers to every student, but he called it “only a matter of time.”

Schools in Howland and SAD 4 in Guilford have given computers to students in grades three to 12 for the past four years.

“Students love using them,” said Gary Roberts, a science teacher and IT director in Howland. “You get a lot better response with this generation if you include some kind of technology in a lesson.”

His school also plans to expand to grades kindergarten to 12 next year.

“The anecdotal feedback is excellent,” SAD 4 Superintendent Paul Stearns said, adding that measuring success has been imperfect.

Computers can teach teamwork, he said, an important skill, but one that’s not picked up on a standardized test.

Hodgkin credited Auburn schools with having the vision to give iPads to young children. That department gives computers to students in kindergarten and grade one, and grades six to 12.

“I’m not sure we’d be able to move forward with some of this if it hadn’t been for their work,” he said. But, in Auburn “there are some gaps. Kids go from having technology to not having technology. We didn’t want to do that.”

There would be policies about taking machines home and classroom use would likely be limited to one to two hours a day, Hodgkin said.

He’d like to set a new tone by introducing computers in the classroom to the very young.

“When you give 5- and 6-year-olds these things, they use them like they’re intended. They’re not doing Facebook and social media and all that other stuff,” Hodgkin said. “It really teaches them to use a tool as a tool. By the time the kids come up through the system, they have a whole different relationship with this technology.”

Having one machine stay with one student for a year will also help track that student’s progress. He anticipates a “significant increase” in test scores.

“You can live in the world you live in or you cannot,” Hodgkin said. “If we want our children to be competitive, they’ve got to be doing what students in other schools are. I don’t mean just in the U.S., I mean around the world.”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

For more on the district’s proposed budget, see the related story on B1.

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