Putnam Making Progress In Goal Of One Device To One Student

Putnam County Schools are nearing their goal of having one take-home device for every student.

Supervisor of Technology Johnny Sloan said that the idea came about even before the pandemic. He said that it was important to the school system to have equity amongst its students both in access to up-to-date devices and internet access itself.

“And also in the scope of classwork in the schools, so many resources, really all the resources at this point in time are technical in nature and digital,” Sloan said. “Be it textbook resources and other curriculum things.”

Sloan said that as of now the middle schools have been at the one-to-one level for some time and that elementary schools are very close. He said that high school is the level that has had the biggest gap.

Sloan said they’ve made up a lot of that gap over the past 18 months through various funding sources. He said in order to maintain the ratio, they have taken several steps to prepare in case of damage or need to replace devices.

“The ones we use we try to streamline that so we can maybe limit it to one manufacturer,” “It makes it easier to obtain parts, it makes the repairs as streamlined as possible. We try to accomplish as much of that as possible in-house for cost-saving. But accidents do happen, we try to use a ruggedized device that can still sustain damage but is a little more durable.”

Sloan said that all devices have a lifespan with durability factored in. He said that they have continued plans to replace devices as their life spans reach an end where software is no longer compatible with student needs.