I also agree. Whatever message is intended to be conveyed is completely lost, but even worse are the incomprehensible rants and multiple repetitive postings of those who appear to have the intelligence of an irradiated cockroach. If you had no idea how many really ignorant people infest this City, just read some of these.
5,18 Million Dollar Show for Melrose Mass 02176=1327 Was not good for all.
Melrose parents may be asked to buy new laptops .THE NEXT SCHOOL COMMITTEE MEETING!
Incoming sixth- and ninth-graders may have to provide Chromebooks starting next year, although financial assistance is available for some.
Parents of sixth- and ninth-grade students may be asked to buy Chromebooks for their children at the start of next school year, as part of multiyear push to provide every student at the middle- and high-school levels with the simple and relatively inexpensive laptop computers. Students entering sixth and ninth grade would be required to purchase Chromebooks at the start of each of the following two years, after which only incoming sixth-graders would be covered by the policy, since at that point students in all higher grades would already have theirs, provided they attended Melrose schools in prior years.
Financial assistance, up to and including 100 percent of the purchase price, is available for families already enrolled in the free and reduced lunch program, or those experiencing other hardship.
“We spent a lot of time on the ways that people could get a Chromebook,” Technology Director Neal Ellis told the School Committee at its most recent meeting. “We based a lot of that on the National School Lunch Program, the NSLP, which is based on the federal poverty income level. To apply for the NSLP, free lunch is at 130 percent of the federal poverty level, 185 is reduced lunch.”
In this case, those qualifying for free lunch could have the entire cost of the Chromebook covered by the district. Those on reduced lunches would get the laptop for half price, which, payable over three years, would come out to about $40 per year. Families earning twice the federal poverty level would qualify for a 25-percent discount.
“You can always apply for a hardship as well,” Ellis said. “All those are kept very confidential. Those are handled with our finance director personally.”
Students who already have access to a comparable device can use it in place of a new Chromebook, he added.
Superintendent Cyndy Taymore said the district has been planning the 1:1 Chromebook push for some time, but that providing subsidies to families who need them wasn’t feasible before.
“This has been on the backburner for a while,” said Taymore. “This was dependant on the override. In order to underwrite a portion of our students, we needed extra funding, and that was in the override money.”
But Mayor and School Committee member Gail Infurna objected to adding another required expense, so soon after Melrosians voted to raise their own taxes in support of the city’s schools.
“I’m a little concerned about this,” she said. “We just passed an override, and I think the timing is a little tough.”
Infurna suggested the program could be implemented on a more voluntary basis. A draft message to parents prepared by administrators reads, “We are asking all families of student entering levels 6 and 9 to purchase a Chromebook.” Infurna suggested softer language.
“I would like it to say, ‘If you are looking to buy a personal Chromebook for your child,’” she said. “I just think this is a tough year to be asking parents to put out some money to buy their child their own personal Chromebook.”
Ellis said such an approach would likely lead to less students participating, which in turn would complicate the further use of Chromebooks going forward.
“The difficulty with only having some people purchase it is that in a classroom setting you want everyone to have a device, and some kids would not have one, some would,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure that the teacher isn’t having difficulty with it.”
Committee member Margaret Driscoll said most parents are already aware of the growing use of technology in schools, and what such devices often cost.
“I see the kids in school, and I see them with devices that cost probably double what a Chromebook would cost,” Driscoll said. “I get the sense that it wouldn’t be a shock.”
Committee member Jennifer McAndrew suggested a few tweaks to the wording of the message could make a big difference. She suggested that the availability of financial assistance could be made clear very early in the message’s text, in conjunction with a reference to the fact that override funds had made the program possible.
Though administrators had hoped for a vote on the policy, Infurna suggested tabling it until the committee’s May 21 meeting. The committee agreed, making discussion of any changes, and a final vote, likely for that date.