Thousands of new computers will be in the hands of students in Cabarrus County this fall thanks to funding from Cabarrus County commissioners.
Both the Cabarrus Board of Education and Kannapolis City School Board approved lease/purchase agreement that will finance the new computers with the county funding. Both boards expressed thanks for the county funding.
“It gets us a million dollars worth of technology right now,” Crabtree said.
Officials with both school systems said the computers are needed for increasing on-line testing and textbooks and on-line education content.
Kannapolis will be replacing about 1,000 net books, which are seven years old. Those computers will be used by an afternoon program but won’t be repaired or serviced by the school system.
Cabarrus Assistant Superintendent Kelly Propst said the student- to-computer ratio will now be 1.3 to 1 at the high school level, 1.4 to 1 at the middle schools and 1.5 to 1 at elementary schools.
“There will be enough computers for every student in another year if the commissioners fund it. We will get there,” Propst said.
Officials with both school systems said this is the biggest technology financial commitment by Cabarrus County Commissioners in more than a decade.