Slippery Rock Area School District was working to get personal devices into the hands of every student, even before the COVID-19 pandemic.

After more than a year of planning, the district is set to implement one-to-one technology into its schools in the fall.

Susan Miller, assistant superintendent of the district, presented the school board with information about the project at Monday's meeting.

Miller said the planning team consisted of administrators and faculty members, and the district looked at other schools with one-to-one technology to test programs in Slippery Rock.

“We took this past year to really learn from contacts and neighbors,” Miller said. “We had a committee of teachers who would pilot some of the software, and really we are here at the end of the year ready for our rollout for next year.”

By looking at how other schools implemented one-to-one technology, Miller said administrators learned how to make it work in a relatively small district such as Slippery Rock.One of the most important takeaways, she said, was to have protective equipment on the laptops and have insurance on each in case of accidents.Miller said the district has been recommended to mandate insurance on the laptops, which would cost $16 each. She also said the district is working on finding a way to provide funds for families who need financial assistance.The cost of the insurance could be reduced in subsequent years, according to Miller.According to Miller, students in grades three to 12 can take their Chromebook laptops home, while students in kindergarten through second grade are to leave their devices at school.Miller compared the distribution of the Chromebooks to that of textbooks, where students will be responsible for their own device if they get one.“We're not going to punish a kid because their parents maybe chose not to participate in this,” Miller said. “But I think it's a great opportunity for our kids.”Alfonso Angelucci, superintendent of Slippery Rock Area School District, commended the team for its work over the past year.“I feel pretty comfortable with where we are,” he said at Monday's meeting.

The school board also voted to eliminate three personnel positions, a half-time English teacher position at Slippery Rock Area High School, a fourth grade position at Moraine Elementary and a kindergarten position at Slippery Rock Area Elementary.Miller told the board the elimination of positions has to do with class sizes, and on the high school level included student interest in certain classes.“We're still keeping very small class sizes and still running a quality English program across the board,” Miller said.The board then voted to create a second-grade position at the middle school.