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- News Archives: 2010-2017
GCS Tablet Program On Hold Until 2014-15 School Year
District announcement comes after ongoing discussions with Amplify
Guilford County Schools (GCS) announced on Dec. 19 that its middle school tablet initiative would not return to classrooms for student use until the start of the 2014-15 school year. The information was shared with the Guilford County Board of Education this evening.
GCS has been in ongoing discussions with Amplify, the company that provided the tablets for the district's Personalized Achievement, Curriculum and Environment (PACE) project.
In a letter GCS received on Dec. 18, Amplify reiterated its commitment to replacing the entire fleet of tablets and related items with new devices from a different manufacturer. GCS will have final approval regarding the selected device and accessories.
Amplify also provided GCS with its timeline to restart the project:
- Jan. 15, 2014: Amplify will share specifications of the final device selection with GCS.
- March 2014: Pending conclusion of the procurement process, Amplify will announce the new device by the end of the month.
- Spring 2014: A small number of sample devices will arrive for the GCS technology team.
- June 2014: Devices will arrive for teacher training.
- July 2014: Initial batch of student devices (including accessories) will arrive, with the balance to arrive in time for redeployment at the start of the 2014-15 school year.
Although Amplify is committed to providing new devices for all 24 GCS middle schools, district staff is still working on the plan for restarting the tablet program.
GCS suspended the tablet program in October after ongoing issues with the quality and safety of the tablets and related items, including cracked and broken screens, broken USB connectors on the folio cases and issues with chargers, including exposed wires and concerns about overheating.
The PACE initiative is funded by a $30 million Race to the Top-District grant awarded to GCS by the U.S. Department of Education in December 2012. The district also received another $5.2 million in optional grant funding to support the PACE project through Guilford Parent Academy, the African-American Male Achievement Initiative and a GCS Virtual Public Middle School.