After receiving emergency connectivity funds, every CFISD high school student was given a new learning device so returned devices can be used in middle and elementary school learning.
The Emergency Connectivity Funds provided by the Federal Communications Commission is a $7.17 billion program to help schools and libraries serve their communities’ needs. For CFISD, this entailed the purchase of new devices for students.
Bridgeland High School was the third school to receive new devices. Director of 1:1 and Inventory Systems, Katie Gentry, explained that not all high schools will receive new devices by the end of the year. All the devices can be tracked by CFISD to ensure their safety.
“We decided to swap out our high school student devices so that all of our high school students have brand new devices,” Gentry said, “That way y’all are college and career ready.”
Part of the process of getting these devices to students was issuing the devices ahead of time in totes, gathering teachers’ rosters for easy roll out. Returned devices will be checked for damages, then receive repairs if needed, and cleaned. Because everyone on campus received new devices, students will be charged for lost items such as a case or stylus when they’re returned.
“I believe it’s $30 for a charger if you lose it, and I think it’s also $30 for your case if you lose your case,” Gentry said, “So we want them to keep the cases on and we want to encourage kids not to put stickers on them because we just have to clean those off when we get them out to other kids.”
When seniors return their devices at the end of the year, they’ll fill out a slip checking that they’ve returned all their items: computer, stylus, case and charger. If an item is missing they’ll put a hold on their account; if the missing item isn’t returned, a fee will be issued.
“We’re just really excited and the campus has been wonderful,” Gentry said, “Administration and teachers have helped us out a lot. We’ve had National Honor Society kids help us get a bunch of the stuff pushed out and we really appreciated it.”