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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 kiosk mode for state testing software, and offer remote lock/wipe and automatic updates. She said the district’s Insight testing software (used for PSSA/Keystone testing) can be run in kiosk mode on Chromebooks.
On costs, Fergus presented per‑unit figures used for planning: a Dell 3100 Chromebook at $349.55 each and a pilot package total of $63,772.50 (50 Chromebooks plus charging carts and licensing as listed on the agenda). She said switching to Chromebooks would let the district expand its device refresh cycle (from two grade levels per refresh to three), allowing more students to receive newer hardware without increasing the overall refresh budget.
Fergus proposed issuing one sample Chromebook cart per elementary building for the remainder of the 2024–25 school year for classroom testing and teacher feedback, and presented a phased purchase timeline that would move from a multi‑platform environment to full Chromebook coverage between 2025–26 and 2029–30. Under the presented timeline, Chromebooks would ultimately be refreshed on a 1/5/9 grade schedule moving forward.
Board members asked about logistics and equity. One board member asked whether carts would be retained after the pilot; Fergus said each building would keep its cart for testing, loaner and assessment needs. Board members discussed whether to pilot in all three elementary buildings or limit to one for cost savings; Fergus said she preferred one cart per elementary to give all teachers time with the devices. Superintendent Dr. Filipowski confirmed Chromebooks with education cases are designed to be rugged for younger students.
Several board members pointed to the state requirement that next year’s statewide assessments will be administered online and noted the district needs devices available for students who otherwise lack one on test days. That operational need was a recurring rationale in the discussion.
Next steps: board members directed staff to place the pilot request on the upcoming agenda for formal action next week so the board can vote after any last questions. Fergus said vendor lead times made the proposed timeline feasible: devices could ship within roughly two weeks of order and the district has been working with Google on configuration steps.
The presentation record shows staff will collect pilot feedback from teachers and students and return to the board with data before any full‑scale purchase is carried out.
