Frequently Asked Questions (Updated 11-08-08)

1)Why would the school give laptops to students in August and take them back in December?

The warranty repair work cannot be completed as planned due to the bankruptcy of the company responsible for repair work. It is very costly to do the repairs outside of the warranty work. The school district will repair some of the laptops, but cannot continue to repair all of those that will breakdown for the rest to the year. So if the computers were kept in the school it can be guaranteed that every student that needs to use a computer will have one to use.

2)Why pull in the ninth and tenth grade laptops?

There are a couple reasons to bring the 9th and 10th laptops back into the high school. First managing the laptops within the HS will be new to staff and students. Pulling is half of the laptops (650) will be easier to manage than all of the laptops (1300). Second, the majority of misuse issues we have are in the ninth and tenth grade. We need to have more practice with the ninth and tenth graders to use the laptops more carefully and appropriately.

3)Shouldn’t we just take the laptops away from those students that break or misuse them? Some of the need for repair comes from misuse. Some students just don’t take very good care of the laptop. Most of the need for repair comes from equipment failure. The hard drives die, mother boards go bad, batteries won’t charge etc. If we just took the laptops from the students that misuse the laptop we would have a few broken laptops in hand. This would not solve the issue of having a 1:1 ratio or a computer for each student to use in school.

4)Why not take computers from anyone with a GPA of less than 3.0? It has not been shown that students with a 3.0 or above show any more responsible use or care of the laptop. It has not been show that students with a GPA of less than 3.0 show any less responsible care of the laptop. It also does not make sense to remove the laptops from students that have a hard time getting good grades. It probably makes more sense that the students with lower GPA’s would need extra help that might include a laptop.

5)Why not pull in all of the laptops? It would be a larger management task within the school to manage 1300 laptops than to manage 650. The 1300 would not cover all classrooms with a set of laptops. Juniors and Seniors have shown that more practice with the laptops and more education on how to use them correctly coupled with maturity, has worked for them to have the laptop 24/7. If the laptop numbers in circulation get very low (due to no repairs and continual equipment failure) it may be necessary to pull in all of the eleventh and twelfth grade laptops too.

6)How can a student do their homework without a laptop at home? Much of the homework given to ninth and tenth grade students can be done at school or done at home without the laptop. Some of the homework requires the use of a computer. Students that have a computer at home can use that one and either email the work to the teacher or themselves to retrieve at school. Computers will be available before school 8:00-8:25, after school from 3:30-5:00 and 7:00-9:00 on certain evenings. Students may also check out a laptop from the school if they have homework. The check out process will be only for school work. How and when we will have checkout is still being decided.

7)What if I have LAMD or LATI classes? If you are a ninth or tenth grade student with classes at LAMD or LATI and need a laptop for work in that class, there will be a computer available for you.

8)Will this change the way I save my school work? You will still have access to your My Documents folder from any computer if you log on to the network.

9)Will I ever be able to take a laptop home everyday in the future? Yes, the plan will include guidelines that will allow you as a tenth grader to have a laptop issued personally to you (like  eleventh and twelfth graders) sometime later in your tenth grade school year. Things like proper computer use, no damage to computers, good attendance, earning credits to stay on grade level, etc will earn you the privilege.

10)Will the issue of computers getting repaired ever be solved? Yes, the current computers are on the last year of a three year lease program. We will enter a new lease plan next year, probably with a different company and a different brand of laptops.

11)How will students know what’s happening with this plan to pull computers back into the school? Mr. Butts the HS principal will talk with smaller groups of students about how we have landed in the position of having to collect laptops and how we will move ahead form here. He plans to talk with the students very soon.

12)How soon will this plan be put into place? The window for collecting the laptops is between December 16 and January 16. The plan will not move forward until all parts of the plan are ready.

13)What about the $25 insurance that I paid at the start of the school year? The $25 fee insures the laptop issued to you against theft or loss. If the laptop issued to you was lost in a fire or stolen (submitted police report) you would be responsible for a maximum replacement cost not to exceed $250. This insurance must remain in place for the remainder of the school year to protect against theft or loss for a laptop that you may checkout and take home to do homework.

14)Why did the school let students take the laptops home in the first place when the program started 6 years ago? It was believed then and still is now that 1:1 laptop learning is very beneficial for students. It was also believed that 1:1 and 24/7 is beneficial to students. Anywhere-anytime learning is a great philosophy and Mr. Butts and Dr. Hanson believe this too. Right now we have to preserve the 1:1 ratio due to a corporation’s economic hardship. Preserving the 1:1 ratio now has to take precedence over the 24/7 philosophy. It is lucky for WHS that it can preserve the 1:1 for all and 24/7 for the juniors and seniors.

15)Will WHS start next year with the laptops in classrooms? Yes, the school year will start with a new lease, new laptops and the same plan to keep 650 laptops in the building. Freshmen and Sophomores will be able to earn the privilege to be personally issued a laptop to use 24/7 later in the tenth grade year if certain guidelines are met. Juniors and seniors will be issued a laptop to use 24/7.