The coronavirus pandemic altered the typical way of doing things across the spectrum — especially when it came to the manner in which children attended school.

Teachers, parents and students were forced to quickly adapt to learning remotely or some sort of hybrid of in-person and at-home learning.

One of the lessons quickly learned during the transition was that equipment that’s past its prime makes a challenging situation even worse.

The South Butler County School District made a smart move Wednesday by voting to approve the purchase of 465 new Chromebooks. As a result, all students in the district will have a school-issued computer that is no more than a year old when they start school this fall.

The district will pay the $132,000 price tag for the new computers with remaining funds in the district’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief grant.

This is a wise investment. Throughout the COVID-19 era of learning from home, some parents and students reported having technological issues. Some of it may have been caused by internet connection issues, while older equipment might have been the case in other instances.

If all students in the district have new computers on which they can work while at school or at home, they’ll be better prepared should they be forced to go back to remote learning in the future.

And while district school officials said nothing of the matter, it’s likely that not all families can afford to purchase new computers for their children.

Many school textbooks have components in them that require the use of a computer while doing homework, so it’s important that all students have the tools they need to complete their assignments.

We hope that county students never again have to engage in the type of remote learning that was forced upon them during the pandemic. Most educators, parents and students agree that students learn better in the classroom and benefit from the socialization elements involved in that setting.

But should they ever again have to learn from home for an extended period of time, we’re glad the South Butler County School District has made that process smoother for them by providing them with new computers.

— NCD