Lehighton Area School District will be using an Emergency Connectivity Fund Grant to purchase Chromebooks for students in grades 3-6.

During a board meeting last Monday night, directors approved the grant and the purchase of Chromebooks at a cost not to exceed $411,600.

“We really want to thank the administration, in particular Melissa Volcskai, our director of instructional technology integration and curricular innovation, for running with this,” Superintendent Jonathan Cleaver said. “This will definitely help us as we work toward achieving the goals set forth in our districtwide technology plan. One of the challenges in putting that plan into action is the cost of purchasing equipment, and this will no doubt help with that.”

In a finance committee meeting in August, Tim Tkach, Lehighton’s assistant to the superintendent, said the district had 1,200 student Chromebooks, 600 student iPads and 80 staff Chromebooks budgeted over the next three years.

“That will give us a total of 2,100 Chromebooks across the district and would cover us from grades 3-12 plus a reserve on the side so if somebody has a broken one, we can get that sent out and fixed so that way there’s no downtime,” Tkach said.

Cleaver said the district plans to add about 900 Chromebooks by using the grant money.

The original goal is when students reach third grade, they will have a new Chromebook they will use through seventh grade before getting another new one for their final five years of school.

“We will be revising our plan to address the rotation of implementation for students,” Cleaver said, “and the plan for replacement after the computers have exceeded their life.”