Roanoke County Prepares Students’ Laptops

By Emily Flora emily.flora@swo-co.com 981-3191

Thousands of laptops stretched across the gymnasium floor at the Roanoke County School Board Central Office for most of the summer and certified technicians scurried throughout the gym, repairing and building laptops in preparation for student’s return to another school year.

“This gym becomes a haven of activity from the end of the school year until it begins,” Chuck Lionberger, Media Relations Specialist for the Roanoke County Public Schools said.

The Roanoke County School Board has been busy repairing and installing necessary information on the laptops that are issued to students each year.

Ninth through 12th-graders in Roanoke County high schools are issued a laptop beginning during their 9th grade year. The laptops are used for their school work and students may take them home. Students return the laptops at the end of each school year. Once returned, any damages are repaired and books and updated software are installed on their computers before they are handed back in August when school begins again.

After the computers have extended their lifespan as student laptops or when a student graduates, they are put on electronic carts and often given to the elementary schools or issued elsewhere, according to Lionberger.

“We’ve been working on the laptops for over a month,” Lionberger said. “Every since school wrapped up in the spring.”

Each laptop is set up with basic programs and with the textbooks specific to each individual student.

Roanoke County began issuing laptops about four or five years ago, Lionberger said.

“We still use the textbooks,” Lionberger said. “What we find is the laptops and textbooks really enhance each other.”

The Technicians repair the laptops each year and are Dell certified. Roanoke County has an in house repair shop.

There is a $40 annual fee for students who are issued the laptops if they choose to take it home from school and for insurance purposed, Lionberger said.

Lionberger said about 95 percent of students pay the fee to take them home, but it is not required. Scholarships are also available for assistance.

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