Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
LAPTOPS ABSENT AS ONLINE LEARNING BEGINS
Machines on back order due to high demand nationwide
ROYERSFORD » With coronavirus concerns convincing many school boards to start this school year virtually, the need for home computers for those without has skyrocketed.
Many districts, including Pottstown and Pottsgrove, will start, or have already started a virtual school year without all students having the devices needed to participate.
This week, that reality hit home with the Spring-Ford School Board.
The discussion began when board member Clinton Jackson asked if there is anything that would prevent school from starting on Sept. 8, to which Superintendent David Goodin replied “nothing that I’m aware of.”
The school board voted July 27 to open online for the first semester of school in the hopes that cases of COVID-19 will continue to drop, making some form of in-person instruction available later in the school year.
And although Goodin said “most materials” students will need to start school have been delivered, there is one notable exception.
Robert Catalano, the district’s director of technology, informed the board that there was a late surge in families requesting Chromebooks for their students to learn at home.
“Our original survey indicated 746 requests, but since then, we have had 2,000 more requests,” Catalano said. “We are using existing equipment to close the gap.”
Some of those older comput
ers are five years old and will need to be replaced because they have “very limited battery life,” but it is unclear when the replacing will occur.
The district has ordered an additional 1,500 Chromebooks, but the supplier has indicated they will arrive until January or February at the earliest, he said.
“I feel like this is being
dropped in the board’s lap the week before school starts,” said school board member Clinton Jackson.
Catalano said the district was informed Aug. 6 that the order would not be filled on time.
“That’s like two or three meetings ago,” Jackson said. For the past month, the Spring-Ford School Board has been meeting at least once a week to keep abreast of the fast-changing situation regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
“We are getting more requests
every day,” said Catalano, noting that
“Nobody can get them. Lots of schools can’t get devices, fortunate we can fill requests at this time.”
School Board President Colleen Zasowski said the Lower Merion School district placed orders in May and delivery is not expected until October.
“I’m worried that the devices will even arrive by January,” she said.
Board Vice President Tom DiBello said many vendors are five months behind
schedule.
During the public comment period of the meeting, Joy Crowle of Collegeville said “school should have started today but Spring-Ford could not get it together for on-line learning due to poor planning. Parents have no faith anything will be accomplished at board meetings.”
However, another resident, Tara Grotto of Royersford, said Monday “students started in other districts today, and it has been a disaster for those parents.”