By: Emma Helmick

Students at the high school are experiencing technical difficulties. 

The district changed its technology company this summer when their contract ended, causing a shift throughout the schools. 

This resulted in things going a little differently this year such as distribution being delayed, kids not getting the same laptop and some devices being dirty. 

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Abegail Spaugy’s school laptop this year.

Photo By: Emma Helmick

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“It was going to take an awful lot of time to get laptops back in the hands of the same student that it came from,” Superintendent Dr. Ken Bissell said. “So that’s where I made the decision and said, ‘get them ready as best as you can and let’s get them out to the students.’” 

The plan was to put in new software, clean them up and organize them to be returned to the same student, but there was not enough time. 

“Last year my computer worked as it was supposed to and also had a touch screen,” junior Andrew Lehnhardt said. “I can tell I was given a much older one that doesn’t function nearly as well.” 

Next year there is a plan to get all new touch screen computers that have double memory and will run faster to all grade levels to fix the problem of slow and older devices. 

“The computers that I have had in the past are super slow,” senior Joshua Nepple said. “I didn’t get the right one when I got my computer this year, but I heard they are getting faster computers for next year which I think is good.” 

Another change that has been made is that there is now a tech line that students can call at any time to get issues resolved. 

“I like how the tech line is 24/7,” senior Abegail Spaugy said. “Last school year, the tech office was only open a few days a week, and if you had an issue, you had to wait until the tech company workers were in their office.” 

There is currently no in-person tech office available to students during the school day, but as of right now the plan is to have someone in the tech office eventually along with the tech line to try to minimize any possible issues that students could face. 

“My job is, I have to look at what’s best for the student body, for the staff, and the community and the taxpayers, and how we make that happen,” Dr. Bissell said. “That’s why we made the decisions that we made, with the plan for next year being we’re going to get new devices across our system.”