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Ambridge Area SD to pilot 50 Dell Chromebooks, citing online‑testing mandate and lower per‑device costs
Summary
District technology staff proposed a 50‑device Chromebook pilot and multi‑year rollout that officials say would make device management simpler, support upcoming state online testing and extend refresh cycles while lowering per‑device cost.
Kristen Fergus, a technology department presenter for the Ambridge Area School District, asked the school board on Feb. 12 to approve a 50‑device pilot of Dell Chromebook 3100 series devices to test Chrome OS in classrooms and inform a phased districtwide transition.
Fergus said the district’s objectives are “students and teachers have the best tools while keeping cost management and long term sustainability in mind.” She told the board the district now issues Dell Latitude Windows laptops for grades 6–12 and Apple iPads for K–5 and is seeing device‑management and compatibility problems with both platforms.
Fergus outlined technical and operational reasons for the pilot: Chromebooks are cloud‑centric and lighter weight than Windows devices, they can be managed from the Google Admin Console, support…
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