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District outlines new Chromebook refresh plan, monitoring and parent controls
Summary
District technology staff presented a multi-year plan to cut Chromebook refresh costs, explained monitoring tools (GoGuardian, Gaggle) and described parental controls; board members asked for broader parent notification.
Highlands County technology staff told the school board they will move to a smaller, targeted Chromebook refresh cycle over two years, while keeping monitoring and parental-control tools in place.
Ian Bellinger, director of MIS, said the district previously refreshed roughly $750,000 worth of Chromebooks each year and is shifting to a plan that refreshes fewer devices — lowering the projected replacement cost to about $450,000 under the new schedule. "We're only gonna refresh our Chromebooks in seventh grade…this plan will be fully in effect in two years," Bellinger said. The change is intended to align district purchasing with Google’s extended device support timeline.
Bellinger described the district’s $10 usage fee (collected voluntarily) as the primary fund for spare parts and minor repairs. He also shared a sample of monitoring alerts: in September 2024 the district received 144 Gaggle alerts across secondary schools; most alerts were determined not founded after review, but some resulted in school interventions. "We do 24/7 monitoring…we will be alerted for self harm and explicit content," Bellinger said.
Parents can use the GoGuardian parent app to view student activity on district Chromebooks at home and to set filters or pause internet access, Bellinger said. He noted that during a Hill Gustat Middle School pilot, sending only eighth graders home with devices required about 400 additional Chromebooks for in-school coverage and raised charging/assignment challenges.
Board members and staff discussed discipline and damage records. Bellinger reported 40 incidents last year categorized as destruction of school board property; he said most sites had similar work-order counts, with some local variations.
The presentation prompted board members to request additional parent outreach about GoGuardian and other controls. No formal policy change was adopted at the meeting; Bellinger and his team offered to provide further data to board members.
Ending: The board requested improved parent notification about existing parental-control tools; district staff will provide more detail in follow-ups.
