All Box Elder students to get iPads

Box Elder Schools will buy iPads for every student as a result of a grant that was announced Monday.

iPads and Macbooks will be made available for teachers. In addition, classrooms will have Apple televisions, which can communicate with the iPads. There will be educational software available to help the teachers educate students.

“I think our students will be very excited,” said Darin Hannum, Box Elder school superintendent. “ … It will help each kid meet or exceed grade-level expectations.”

He said if he had to guess at a monetary value of the equipment they are going to receive, it would be around $300,000. The school will receive more than 600 devices to supplement the students’ education.

“It’s a game-changer for us,” Hannum said. “I don’t think we would be able to do it without the grant — at least, not this quickly.”

He said he thinks the equipment will start to come in in a couple months, but as of Monday after the announcement was made, there are still a lot of questions they will have to find the answers to. Whether the kids would take the iPads from class to class or how they will be assigned still needs to be solidified, among other factors.

Monday, 114 schools around the nation were named as recipients of the grant. Two other Montana schools will receive the grant: Browning Middle School and Two Eagles River School in Pablo.

The Apple and ConnectED Grant gives to schools that fit a certain criteria.

Inner-city schools and schools on or near reservations are popular choices, and they must present a plan of how they would use the resources in order to receive them.

The Montana Department of Education reached out to Box Elder School and asked them to apply, Hannum said, and he and many others worked to write the grant and apply for the grant since July.