The Dunkirk City School District is no longer letting all of its students take computers home.

“This year we shifted Chromebooks to carts in the classrooms. We moved away from full one to one. We still offer one to one to select students. We’re trying to reduce the cost of maintenance and repairs to the Chromebooks,” explained Jeremy Dobek, district technology director, at a recent Board of Education meeting.

Dobek said provision of Chromebooks to all students started in 2020 as a COVID-19 pandemic necessity for remote classes. Beginning last school year, elementary students could no longer take the devices home, but secondary schoolers still could.

“We found the kids weren’t needing to take the computers home at younger ages… In the high school level, secondary building, there was a lot of damage, a lot of missing devices,” Dobek said.

A few students are still allowed to take the mobile computers home. Students attending BOCES and those in Advanced Placement classes are among the 330 kids who can still take Chromebooks home.

“It’s still a one to one model, they’re just not taking them from the classroom,” Dobek said.

He showed some statistics from the 2022-23 school year: 218 devices had broken screens, 150 were lost or not returned and 75 were damaged beyond repair. Total cost of repairs to the district was $103,068.

Dobek said he was saving about $1,100 weekly in repair costs by keeping the tablets in the classrooms. The classroom carts for the devices charge them and keep them at a stable temperature, so they are in optimal condition, he added.