Students in Mancos will be enjoying more new Chromebooks soon.
The Mancos School District Re-6 received an additional $119,000 last week from the state. It was onetime funding set aside for rural districts, said Superintendent Brian Hanson.
The district plans to invest in Chromebooks, a new bus and the school’s Student Centered Accountability Project.
The school is spending about $68,000 on laptops, $29,000 on a bus and the rest on the accountability project.
In about 30 days, every high school class room should have a set of Chromebooks to use.
The middle school and the elementary schools will receiving more laptops to share as well.
Teachers and students at the district use Google accounts, which allows students to access and turn in their work from any computer, using the Google Drive, said Secondary Principal Adam Priestly.
“Its a great tool for student, teacher and parent communication,” he said.
The students also use the laptops to find resources to help understand information presented in the classroom, he said.
Eventually, the district would like to give every high school student a laptop to use for four years and take with them when they graduate, Hanson said.
The school’s accountability pilot project is exploring an alternative to standardized testing. The state money replaced general fund money that was being spent on the project.
Its a project that nine other district are also working on.
mshinn@durangoherald.com