Shorewood to Get iPads

The Shoreline School Board approved a purchase of 1,600 iPads for Shorewood High School at Monday night's board meeting.

The vote was 4-0 with director Richard Potter abstaining. 

The total cost for 1,600 iPads, cases, operating system applications, staff training, and carts—to bring in the current crop of laptops when needed,—is about $1.03 million. Each iPad alone will cost about $525 with tax included.

Fees of $30 per student are proposed to bring some of the cost down by about $48,000 for a total cost of less than a $1 million.

The 2010 technology levy passed by district voters will fund the project.

Shorewood will receive the iPads since "existing laptops cannot sustain an ongoing 1:1 project (one laptop per student), nor can levy funds support a wholesale replacement with similar devices. Of the six options that were reviewed, a gradual shift to lower-cost tablet devices while still getting an additional year of service from current laptops seems to offer the district the most benefit in terms of affordability, utility and flexibility," according to the Board agenda. 

A core group of Shorewood teachers and staff will be identified as early adopters of the technology this summer and their expertise will help the implementation of the project in the fall.

The original laptop program began five years ago and supplied all district high schoolers with a MacBook laptop. 

The district plans to support the program at Shorewood during the 2011-2012 school year and evaluate its effectiveness before potentially expanding it to Shorecrest in 2012-2013, according to the Board agenda.