The Cobb County School District has received the first 750 of a supply of 2,600 Chromebook computers from a Norcross company to help meet virtual learning demands at the start of an online-only school year.
On Thursday the Stratix Corporation, which provides managed mobility services, announced it had delivered the first portion of the devices to the Cobb school district, which is trying to fulfill nearly 40,000 requests from students and their families.
Felicia Wagner, executive director of the Cobb Schools Foundation, a non-profit that provides financial and other assistance to district, issued this statement through Stratix:
“We want all students to have the tools and resources they need to achieve their goals and be successful. With Cobb students returning to school virtually this fall, we had an immediate need to get additional devices to the schools. We felt Stratix was the right fit. They were local to us, had access to the volume of devices we needed and went to great lengths to get us the devices while working within our budget.”
The cost of the acquisition was not disclosed, but the district also announced Thursday it had received another 750 Chromebooks donated by a collection of churches in Cobb County, with another 1,900 on the way.
North Metro Church raised $150,000 for computers for students in Cobb and Marietta schools, with half going to each district, per a Cobb school district release.
The Cobb school district received $8.1 million from the Cobb Board of Commissioners last month in federal CARES Act funding to build out its online learning portal.
When Commissioner Lisa Cupid asked why computer purchases weren’t part of the request, Cobb school superintendent Chris Ragsdale said he was confident the district could provide them. He said some Chromebooks earmarked for students in need had gone unused.
Before the school year began, he said the district received 32,000 requests for devices, and another 6,000 requests have been made since online classes began Aug. 17.
Related Content
- Georgia teachers’ head: Back to school not a return to normal
- Zoom outage affects Cobb schools at start of second week
- East Cobb parents express frustration with online school start
- Wheeler graduate creates petition to keep school name
- Cobb school board member blasted for ‘China virus’ reference
- Cobb school board buys land near Walton HS, adopts budget
- Cobb superintendent not giving date on classroom return
- Cobb school district launches virtual instruction portal
- The East Cobb Open for Business Directory
- East Cobb News COVID-19 Resource Page
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
