January 22, 2025
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Oswego School District 308 discusses requiring seniors to be paid up to keep Chromebooks

Board members question whether plan would be effective or even punitive

By Eric Schelkopf
Karen Stuefen, secretary of the board, thanked the foundation, the district's Executive Director of Technology David Smith and the community for its support of the foundation at the meeting. "Here's one example of how the district is looking at equity of education for all of its students," she said. Superintendent David Moyer thanked the foundation, which, he said, stepped in "immediately" upon Smith's request for funding support for the program. "With all of our Chromebooks and all of our one-to-one, we're redesigning how our instruction looks, and for some of the families who do not have internet in their homes, we wanted to find a way to help support them, and this was one way to do it," Moyer said. "But the funding source that we had identified last year dried up, and so the foundation stepped in and is going to provide these hotspots for families that do not have internet access."

(Shaw Media file photo)

The Oswego School District 308 board is weighing whether to require that graduating seniors not have any outstanding district fees if they want to keep their district-issued Chromebook.

Officials hope that doing so will help collect outstanding fees from students, lessening the financial burden on the district.

Last year, the decision was made to give out the Chromebooks to graduating seniors.

“We think it was a well received program,” Brent Kiger, the district’s director of technology and infrastructure, told board members at their Nov. 18 meeting. “There’s not a whole lot of value for us to either retain it or even sell it. The devices that we have given out have been in circulation for four years. Although the devices are still supported by Google for updates, they have become somewhat antiquated as far as new devices for new students.”

He has recommended the district continue the program, but that the program only be open to seniors who do not owe the district any outstanding fees.

“Instead of a handout, we want to make it more of an incentive,” Kiger said. “We are recommending that the seniors that do not have fees to the district will receive their device. Anybody with current fees, they will need to turn those devices in.”

Oswego School District chief financial officer Raphael Obafemi said the district does not have an obligation to give a device to a student.

“We are just extending that as a courtesy,” he said. “We are saying, ‘In order to get that courtesy, can you pay us what you owe us?’”

School board member Jennifer Johnson opposed the idea.

“I find this to be punitive and I don’t care for it,” she said. “I think there’s plenty of other ways to collect fees and I don’t feel this is the appropriate way to do it.”

In answering a question about the Chromebooks being outdated, Kiger said his department could still use a computer for parts or as a spare.

Board member Amy Murillo wondered how effective such a program would be in collecting outstanding fees. She was looking for more information, such as the amount of uncollected fees from last year and how many students in the senior class that represents.

Board members are expected to discuss the topic again at a future meeting.