L.B. schools giving computers to fifth-graders
Abbott District funds
make experiment
possible for 2004-05
BY CHRISTINEVARNO
Staff Writer

LONG BRANCH — The Long Branch school system is ready to start a new school year with new lap top computers for each fifth-grade student.

The 300 enrolled fifth-graders at the A. A. Anastasia School on Morris Avenue, the West End School on West End Avenue and at the Audrey W. Clark School on Garfield Avenue will be receiving Dell lap top computers when school starts Sept. 7.

This is the first step in a long-term project for every student in the school system, from grades five through 12, to have a lap top computer, according to Joseph M. Ferraina, superintendent of schools.

"This is a pilot to take the kinks out and make it [the project] perfect," Ferraina said. "Every child will eventually have a lap top. That is the future."

Each computer will cost $1,300 and the total cost of the project will be about $390,000, according to Ferraina.

He said the money will come from different areas in the school budget, such as; supplies, equipment, breakage and other line items. The school district is an Abbott District, so all the money spent is Abbott money, Ferraina said.

As one of 30 Abbott Districts — that is a school district established as having "special needs" in keeping with the state Supreme Court’s series of decisions in Abbott vs. Burke, culminating in 1998, the district receives state funding to pay for certain mandated operations and to ensure that the school system is funded at the level necessary to provide a "thorough and efficient education" as mandated in the state constitution.

The 1998 decision was the fifth in the case, which was originally filed in 1981 on behalf of children in the state’s urban school districts.

"I have been talking about doing this project for a long time," Ferraina said. "I always thought that technology is the future. I felt comfortable that this is the right time [to enact the project]."

He said the project will be easy to do the first year, but it will be hard to continue in following years if it is successful.

"We will assess the project as the year progresses and base our following year action on how this year succeeds," Ferraina said. "Things are still up in the air, but we have the loose ends tied enough to implement it."

Initially, the students’ computers will stay at school, according to Ferraina, who said once the students are comfortable and know how to take care of the systems they will be allowed to take the computers home for homework assignments.

Ferraina said upon the success of the project, the fifth-graders will ad­vance to the sixth grade and take the lap tops with them. At that time the school will invest in supplying the new fifth-grade class with new lap tops. The project will continue while the students are in the Long Branch school system in that fashion, he said.

"If we find we did a great job the project will continue," Ferraina said. "We are looking to eventually put the textbooks on the computers."

The school system is also looking into supplying an Internet service provider (ISP) with low-cost Internet access to the homes of the students who may not have Internet access at home.

Ferraina said he does not know the cost of that part of the project as of this time, but the funding for it will come from donations and fund-raisers.

It is not required for families to accept the at-home Internet access and alternate assignments will be provided for those students, Ferraina said.

"We are excited," he said. "It is easy to say a school system has new computers, but I want to see what the impact of those computers will be in May and June [of 2005]."