Date: October 12, 2019

To: St. Elizabeth School Board

From: Meagan Walter
RE: Student Chromebooks for elementary school, grades fifth through eighth

Purpose:
I propose that we introduce Google Chromebooks into the classroom, starting with grades sixth
through eighth. Chromebooks are green for the planet, cost-effective, and easy to maintain. Since
2014, many schools have either made the switch from the iPad to the Chromebook or just
initially introduced the Chromebook. By introducing Chromebooks into the classroom at St.
Elizabeth, we can save money but still keep tuition the same, get our students more involved in
the classroom and also help to prepare them for high school, where they will be using
Chromebooks or other electronic devices.
St. Elizabeth is one of the two small parochial schools in our zip code and we are sometimes
slow to bring our curriculum up to par. Some of our textbooks are at least nine years old, if not
older. When we do replace a textbook, it’s only one subject a year that we are able to do because
of how expensive they are. By the time we get all new textbooks, the oldest textbook might
already five or six years old.
Current Problem:
One of the major problems we are facing with using textbooks in the classrooms is the waste that
occurs to our environment. The average school can go through about seventy-four trees worth of
paper a school year. To help break it down a little more, just one tree can make about thirty-four
textbooks, which isn’t even enough for one student to get through kindergarten through eighth
grade here at St. Elizabeth.
Emergencies happen and substitutes teachers are needed and yes, teachers should have their
folder with course work for students to do, but sometimes it isn’t up to date and doesn’t correlate
with what is currently being taught in the classroom.
Many of our textbooks are old or outdated. Some textbooks don’t even make it their full life
because depending on how well the student takes care of their books, some get returned rather
shabby, might have torn pages or writing in the book. Textbooks only allow for one type of
teaching. By having textbooks, we are limiting the type of accommodations we can provide to
students should they need them.
Textbooks are heavy. I remember my grandmother weighing my backpack after school
somedays because I would literally have every book for homework. This can cause students to
have back issues and contribute to headaches. Research has shown that heavy backpacks are
affecting children’s spines and can cause back pain. This is because textbooks are heavy and
when students have homework, they have no other option but to take their books home with
them. For some students, this may result in a book for every subject they had that day.
Researchers from the University of California, San Diego determined that “over 92% of children
in the United States carry backpacks that are typically loaded with 10% to 22% of their
bodyweight.” The weight of a backpack could easily range from 18-26 pounds that children have
to haul on their backs walking home, taking a bus, or walking from class to class. By the time
children reach ages 11-14, they might already have back issues. Heavy backpacks can cause
compression on the spinal discs and curvature.
Proposed Solution:
By introducing Chromebooks into the classrooms here at St. Elizabeth, we have the opportunity
to help grow our parish family. Technology offers many opportunities and when families are
picking which school to send their children to, they are looking for schools that promote
innovative ways of learning. Not only can Chromebooks promote innovation but it is also going
to save money and help make our school eco-friendly.
Chromebooks are beneficial to the teachers and other staff for multiple reasons. If a teacher has
to take a sick day, she is able to still make sure her students have updated assignments to do for
the day and is able to send out a mass email to her students and the substitute teacher for the day.
Students will have a 1:1 device policy meaning that each student will have his or her own
Chromebook for the school year making it possible to monitor and filter websites and activities
that they are doing. Work is easily shared among student and multiple staff members. When I
worked at a public school for the Special School District, some of my students had shared
documents with not only their head teacher but also their special education teacher, their
paraprofessional, and even sometimes the assistant principal. This helps tremendously with
helping certain students stay on target but also for the teachers to know what is going on with the
assignment and where the student left off and still needs help. Google docs are easily used and
comments can be made and to be able to guide assistance with students work or to just provide
feedback. Cheating off of another student has now become harder, thanks to students having
Chromebooks. When students are taking tests, the teacher has the option to present the questions
in a randomized order but not making any extra work on their end when it comes to grading the
tests. Teachers will also be able to graph their student’s assignments and tests and monitor their
progress on all their work. This helps to keep a closer eye on students and catch them before they
fall behind.
Chromebooks provide interaction among students and can help keep them engaged. There are
many learning and educational websites that help to provide extra help and different ways of
explaining certain lessons. Kahn Academy is an example of a great, free website that students
would be able to use while in the classroom or at home for help. Kahn Academy helps students
from preschool through college. It’s a great resource and teachers can even include it into their
assignments as it has lessons and videos that can go into further detail about a topic, an example
being math. Kahoot! is a great website that teachers can use with their smartboards to help get
students as a class involved. Kahoot! doesn’t have a maximum number of students allowed to
participate and can join by simply typing in a code on their Chromebook. This website can help
students prepare for an upcoming test or just a refresher about a lesson recently learned. The
teacher can pick or create a series of questions and answers and the students can join in and stay
anonymous if they want, which can help them to participate without fear of being embarrassed if
they get it wrong. Students compete to be the quickest one to answer and gain the most points. If
teachers want students to have some quiet time but research a topic more thoroughly, they can
use their Chromebooks to work on the website BrainPop. There are two different versions,
BrainPop Jr. for elementary and BrainPop for junior high aged students. Students can watch a
video clip and then take quizzes or answer questions afterwards. This can also be submitted to
the teacher for assessments.
Since we are a parochial school, certain resources for students are limited and that could
potentially hurt us by their families choosing a different school. Chromebooks allow accessibility
options for students who are hearing or visually impaired or that might have other learning
disabilities. Chromebooks allow students to have the option of using a screen magnifier, have the
text read to them, and even the text being in a different color to help them read better.
By using Chromebooks in the classroom, we can save money in multiple ways. First, we won’t
be wasting as many trees by creating textbooks for students that sometimes can go out of date as
soon as it is published. Depending on the student that had a textbook before you, you might be
unlucky enough to have a textbook that had something spilt in it or that is all marked and ripped
up. Chromebooks are assigned to each, individual student that they will keep for the whole year.
If they choose not to purchase it, then it will be turned in at the end of the school year, cleaned
up and wiped clean to be given to a student for the next year. When the students use the books
online, it will be fresh, unmarked pages to them but they will have the option to make their own
comments if needed without ruining the page for another student. According to the website
Plantsave.com, it is estimated that about 30 million trees are cut down annually to make books
just in the United States. To help break it down even more, an average school goes through
seventy-four trees worth of paper annually. It would be rewarding and wonderful if we could
help eliminate the number of trees cut down each year. Chromebooks are also cheaper to use
than desktop computers, about $800 cheaper. The average Chromebook costs about $200 and we
don’t have to work about purchasing any additional programs such as Office or any antivirus
software. Chromebooks are cloud storage, have automated file backup and immediate updates
available for the devices. Students login to the Chromebook with their Google email address and
everything they do on documents is saved and available for them to access on any other device
should their Chromebook battery die on them.
Speaking of battery life on the Chromebooks, as long as students charge their Chromebooks each
night, the long battery life will last all day for the student. Students will not be on their
Chromebook for eight hours during the day, such as when teachers are going over lessons, while
at church, in music class or P.E., but when it is being used, the battery life is long enough to last
for students to use it at home. Students will learn responsibility by needing to take care of their
Chromebook. Even though the Chromebooks will be issued with a protective case, students will
still need to be fragile with them and need to remember to charge their Chromebook at home
each night.
The development of our students is another concern we need to think about. We don’t want our
students graduating and leaving our school with back problems. With a Chromebook averaging
about three pounds, this will significantly help our students from doing damage to their bodies
and alleviating any possible pain. Their backpacks then should only contain their Chromebooks,
folders, and notebooks.
Case Study:
A case study was done by Upper Grand District School Board (Upper Grand DSB) in Ontario,
Canada to help students with disabilities. In doing their research on different electronic devices,
they came to the conclusion that Chromebooks were the best option. Upper Grand DSB’s IT
Program Liaison, Bill MacKenzie noticed that not only were the Chromebooks affordable but
they also solved several other problems they had. Children actually enjoyed using the
Chromebooks, they started up quickly making it easier for students and teachers to begin work
and they were light and easy to carry. MacKenzie stated that “we can buy 100 Chromebooks for
the price of 30 of the previous laptops.” It was also determined that their computer software of
text-to-speech was traded for the Read&Write Chrome extension saving the district significant
amount of money because they could now be licensed district wide for what it used to cost to just
license 10 devices. Even though the case study was done to try and improve the needs of students
with disabilities, many of the solutions they had, can also help us. We will be able to save money
with software needed and this will allow any students at our school with any learning disabilities
to have access to the programs and apps needed to succeed. The weight of these Chromebooks
being on average about three pounds will be lighter for students to carry and will help prevent
any back issues.
Survey:
Our current enrollment for our 2019-2020 school year is 208 students and that consists of
students from the preschool up to the eighth grade. Out of the 208 students, we have 164 families
that attend our school. At the beginning of September, we sent a survey home in the Friday
Folders to each family at our school asking them about their preference in introducing
Chromebooks into the classrooms. We have recently received all the results and were able to put
our results together to give you the percentages of those in favor. Out of the 164 families, 147 of
those families was in favor of introducing Chromebooks into our school. 15 families were
undecided and asked for more information about the devices and 2 families said no, they had no
interest in their children using Chromebooks. That means that an overwhelming 93% of our
families would like to see their students using Chromebooks and having more technology in the
classroom.
 Family votes on getting Chromebooks
1%
6%

Yes
No
Undecided
93%

Timetable:
Our timeline for this to happen can be fairly short and we can have the Chromebooks ready for
the start of the next schoolyear, 2020-2021. Since the Springfield Diocese does not have to
oversee our plan, we just need to have the finance board sign off on it and then have the final
signature by our priest, Fr. Alfred. Once all that is done, we just need to have the technology
department order the Chromebooks and we can have them here at the school within two weeks.
Our technology department can then start working on some of the Chromebooks in the Spring
once registration has begun and students will be able to come and pick up their Chromebooks
one to two weeks before school starts. Once the large order is placed by the technology
department, any future orders will be easy to handle and can be order by the school principal.
Budget:
Each Google Chromebook will cost about $200 per student. This will not be costing the students
and their families additional funds and the tuition for the school year will remain the same. Since
the church is now paid off, the Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) would like to contribute
funds raised from the annual dinner dance auction to gifting us the Chromebooks for the school
for grades fifth through eighth. Students will also have the option to purchase the Chromebook
for their self. If students choose to do this, it will save the school money and students will be able
to keep their Chromebooks during the summer and take it with them when they graduate from
eighth grade. One of our Science books at the school costs about $76 per student for one book. If
we were to average all the textbooks that the students would be needing for the school year;
math, science, spelling, literature/English, and history/social studies, the amount would be about
$380. That amount is not including their coursebooks and some of these books could also be
significantly more than $76. By moving away from the textbooks, we would be saving at least
$180, if not more.
Conclusion:
Our students are our future and so is technology. Not so long ago, textbooks were the only way
to learn, now there are more interactive and innovative ways that can better prepare a student for
the future, one is working on a Chromebook. Students benefit by helping those that may have a
learning disability, helps with their creativity, and also will help prevent future back issues.
Teachers also have many benefits but one of the biggest is being able to easily customize an
assignment for select students in relation to an IEP. I would be happy to discuss my ideas further
with you at your convenience and I look forward to hearing from you. Thank you for your time.
 References
Case Studies: Upper Grand District | Google for Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://edu.google.com/why-google/case-studies/upper-grand-
district/?modal_active=none.

Godelnik, R. (2008, September 10). Eco-Libris: The Numbers are Going Up - 30 Million Trees
are Cut Down Annually for Books Sold in the US. Retrieved from
https://planetsave.com/2008/09/10/eco-libristhe-numbers-are-going-up-30-million-trees-
are-cut-down-annually-for-books-sold-in-the-us/.

Heavy Backpacks Affect Children's Spines, MRI Study Finds. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://wolterskluwer.com/company/newsroom/news/2010/01/heavy-backpacks-affect-
childrens-spines-mri-study-finds.html.