Two years after the troubled iPad rollout in L.A. Unified, CUSD is in the middle of one of it’s biggest technology purchases in years.

Bur rather than buying iPads for every student, CUSD is spending its money on the Google Chrome platform. The systems have no hard drives, instead using cloud storage and offering a suite of applications useful to teachers and students alike.

Unlike the more expensive iPads, Chromebooks come with a keyboard, which allows them to be used for Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium test used to test all juniors on new Common Core Standards. The district received the funds to pay for the devices from the state in order to implement the Common Core Standards.

“After researching many possible devices, the Chromebooks were decided to be the device that could accomplish the digital integration skills and standards within the Common Core standards,” said Jeremy Davis, Director of Educational Technology.

Fifteen carts containing the Chromebooks will arrive at SJHHS in early 2015.

Out of these fifteen, five will go to the English department, four to science, four to social science, and one to special education.

Each cart will contain up to 40 Chromebooks.

SJHHS teachers Gidion, Klingbeil, Kohler, Molio’o and Noble will receive carts for the English department. Kolenic, Miamoto, Hellwig, and Hall will receive carts for the science department. Kaiser, Halt, Roberts, and Briggs for social science, and Moreno will be the only recipient for math. Mele will also receive a cart for special education.

“Each department will be free to use them as they think best,” said Principal Ressler, “this allows teachers to be flexible in the teaching curriculum and use a variety of tools such as Google classroom.”

The division may seem a little odd to some people. Why would one subject receive five carts and another only one?

“In the math department they were not really sure about the use of it. So one teacher is going to use it and he is going to develop it, and then we will expand it,” said Ressler.

In addition to the Chromebook computers, students are allowed to bring their own devices to school, or B.Y.O.D. This may free up computers for other students who need them.

But rules come with this new freedom.

Students are still required to connect to the school’s wireless system so CUSD will still remain compliant with Federal, state and local guidelines governing internet access in schools. Websites such as YouTube may soon be unblocked for students, but will also go through the filter that weeds out inappropriate sites.