PAPILLION, Neb. (KMTV) — High school and middle school students in the Papillion La Vista school district waited an entire school year to receive new Chromebook laptops and now the wait is over. The final round of students received personal laptops on Friday.
"We actually ordered these machines back in June of 2020 and they didn't come in until May of 2021. So there was a 10 or 11-month delay in actually getting the machines," said Lucas Bingham, Technology Director at PLCS.
"It's awesome, because we've been waiting a long time for these, so just to have them here, it's an awesome feeling. Having the school devices, sometimes we didn't have enough or some wouldn't work, so just having our own devices just makes it quicker and easier," said Malachi Emesih, an eighth-grade student at Liberty Middle School.
This summer was busy for the IT team at Papillion La Vista Community Schools. As they unloaded and prepared nearly 7,000 laptops for students.
"We spent a lot of time this summer getting them ready, preparing them, unboxing them, all those types of fun things. It's been quite a journey to get here to our last day of deployment," said Bingham.
These students are now able to take their Chromebooks home with them to work on their school work, and they no longer have to share with other students.
"It will just be nice. It will be a really good learning opportunity for everyone just to have their own computer," said Mackenzie Freebrick, an eighth-grade student at Liberty Middle School.
Technology like this has become necessary for students.
"We use Google classroom a lot, and we just kind of access files or devices that teachers kind of post on there, and we do assignments and tests and stuff like that," said Freebrick.
"We're starting to see and we will continue to implement more digital curriculum, digital online resources and access. So it will become more important for them to have access," Bingham said.
New laptops also went to elementary schools in the district to update any old devices. All 7,000 laptops were paid for by district funds, as well as sponsorships with Facebook and the Sarpy Data Center.
