Wichita schools spending $24M on computers for secondary students amid pandemic

Wichita public schools will spend $24 million to buy computers for all secondary students after data showed 15% or more of middle and high school students had no contact with teachers after the coronavirus pandemic hit.

The USD 259 Board of Education approved the technology spending after reviewing data on students who had no continuous education after Kansas schools were closed during the district’s spring break.

“It is exciting, I mean we’re going to finally have the technology that our students need, and that’s really important in today’s world,” board president Sherill Logan said.

The district’s statistics showed 16.3% of high school students, 15% of middle school students and 8.1% of elementary students had no contact with educators during the final months of the school year. The numbers do not measure the level of engagement the rest of the students had with their continued learning.

School officials pointed to the lack of digital devices as a reason some students were not engaged.

Susan Willis, the district’s chief financial officer, said about $11.2 million in funding will come from federal CARES Act funding and about $2.1 million will come from the capital outlay. About $10.6 million will come from a four-year lease-purchase agreement with Commerce Bank that has a 1.24% interest rate.

Kansas Department of Education data listed 24,053 students enrolled in sixth through 12th grades in the Wichita district at the start of the school year. The cost equates to nearly $1,000 per student

Robert Dickson, the chief information officer, said the district will buy about 24,000 Wi-Fi enabled devices. Most will be HP ProBook 440s, though there will be about 1,000 Microsoft Surface Pros.

He said that using eSIM cards provides the lowest cost for internet access, and students will have unlimited data. The computers could also be used during in-person classes.

The computers have accident protection plans in case they are damaged. They also have an inherent protection against theft.

“If this (computer) were taken or stolen, it really is of no use to whoever took it, because I can ‘brick’ it,” Dickson said. “I can even tell you where it is.”

The board also approved a revamped online education through Wichita Virtual School, which had a name change to Education Imagine Academy.

Wichita student engagement varies

Though 16.3% of high-schoolers had no contact with their teachers during the pandemic, seniors had a higher level of engagement. Across the district, 5.2% of seniors had no contact. The number dropped to 16.4% for juniors, 20.7% for sophomores and 22% for freshmen.

Deputy Superintendent Tiffinie Irving said the data on 12th-graders shows why it was necessary to prioritize seniors and graduation during the pandemic. The data on freshmen and sophomores “highlights the work that we’re going to have before us this fall,” as those grade levels are what need the most support to prevent dropping out, Irving said.

Northeast, Heights and East high schools had the highest levels of engagement. North and West high schools had the lowest.

Targeted intervention

Board member Ben Blankley said he expects certain areas of the district will need more targeted intervention.

“We’ve got some schools that are clearly going to need some additional support, even if we get completely back to in-person schooling in the fall,” he said.

The district did not release the exact numbers of students in each grade that had no contact with teachers. Kansas Department of Education data shows there were 13,252 high school students at the start of the year, which would mean about 2,160 high-schoolers had no continuing education during the pandemic. There were 3,255 students in 12th grade, which means about 170 seniors did not engage with school.

Middle school educators weren’t able to reach 15% of students. Pleasant Valley and Horace Mann had the highest levels of contact and Mead had the lowest.

Elementary schools couldn’t reach 8.1% of students. Several schools had high levels of contact, but the ones with the lowest were Cessna, Franklin, L’Ouverture, Cloud, GPA, Stanley and Irving.

Irving said the relatively high engagement levels for early grades is reassuring because that’s where literacy skills are built. The data will help the district plan for the instructional needs of students when classes resume in the fall, she said, adding that social economics makes a difference.

“We must overcome the digital divide to create those equitable opportunities for our students,” Irving said.

In addition to the lack of digital devices for some students, language barriers and communication issues also impacted online education, said Superintendent Alicia Thompson.

Board member Stan Reeser said “the problem was not created 100% by COVID-19.” He theorized that there is a correlation between the data on student engagement during the pandemic and existing test scores from individual schools.

“I don’t want us to think that technology alone is going to solve this problem,” Reeser said. “It is really going to come down to zeroing in on where the problems are and where we need to improve ... It’s still going to come down to individual families and their engagement.”

About 6% of parents or guardians who responded to a survey assessed their child as having no engagement with learning during the spring. About 33% reported that it was a struggle, about 31% reported their child as engaging periodically and about 30% reported their child was regularly engaged.

The parent survey also found that about 25% said they are not prepared to supervise home learning. About 48% said they struggled at first but figured it out, about 11% said their children didn’t need parental help and about 16% said the transition to home-based learning was easy.

“It took 150 years to create the schools that we have and the education we’ve have — and you (educators) all have, in a matter of weeks, re-created (education),” said board member Ernestine Krehbiel.

“One of the things that I think we’ve realized over the last couple of months is there’s not going to be an old normal that we go back to,” Dickson said. “I think any time a society or people are squeezed, innovation happens.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2020 at 5:06 PM.