Every seventh and eighth grader at Butler Catholic School will now have a Google Chromebook at their fingertips to assist them in the classroom and at home.

Those 45 students and all Butler Catholic teachers were given the laptops at a special event Wednesday night, thanks to a $25,000 grant from the A.J. and Sigismunda Palumbo Charitable Trust Foundation.

Kristen Singleton, a computer teacher and IT director at the school, said a push into the most recent technology has been emphasized in recent years. About half of Butler Catholic’s classrooms have smart boards, and there is schoolwide wireless Internet.

“We thought these Chromebooks would be a good next step for the older students,” Singleton said.

The laptops will be a vital source in the classroom, even going as far as replacing some of the students’ textbooks, she said.

If the program goes well, students in the fifth and sixth grades may have them in years to come, Singleton said. The school plans to reapply for more grant money for the coming school year, she said.

“We think it’s a program that can go schoolwide,” she said.

More than 200 students from kindergarten through eighth grade are enrolled at Butler Catholic School.