The Dell Rapids Middle School recently purchased enough laptops so that every student in fifth through eighth grade would be able to be on a computer in their core classroom for the upcoming school year.
During the Dell Rapids School Board meeting on Monday, August 11th, Middle School Principal Fran Ruesink said, “We purchased enough laptops so that really any classroom that we’ve got for our core classes of 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th, they should be able to be one-on-one if they want to be with the combination of desktops and laptops right in the rooms.”
Ruesink also reported to the board that with the way that the Language Arts curriculum is going and the way that standardized testing requires an online performance, it’s something they felt was needed.
“None of those machines will go home, but the days of us going to the library for computer lab should be done. Any classroom should be able to be up and going in five minutes or less,” said Ruesink.
The machines are already at the middle school, and technology staff are currently working to re-image the machines for school use. The goal is to have the laptops ready for student-use by the time school starts on August 27th, or as soon as possible.