Group of one male and two female students using Dell Chromebook 11 (Model 3120 Belmont) notebook in an elementary school classroom.

Chromebooks can be an extremely helpful tool in educational settings, key word can. Unfortunately, for many students at BHS, that has not been the case. Broken keyboards, connectivity issues, and short battery life are just a few of the problems BHS students have with school-issued Chromebooks.

Specifically, juniors at BHS have had the same Chromebooks since 6th grade, and many students complain about their Chromebooks being extremely slow or not working. 

Julia Baumbach said, “I’m currently using a loner because my Chromebook is so slow.”. 

Clearly, the juniors already have issues with their Chromebooks at BHS, but now that the SAT and many APs are going digital, there are more issues posed for juniors at BHS.

 Eva Neamonitis said, “For the SAT this weekend, I can’t even use my own Chromebook because it dies so quickly.”.

Many students are extremely angry with our administration because of these issues. Especially since the school district has spent large sums of money on the construction of the brand new e-sports lab, which features many high-tech gaming computers.

 BHS students, especially the juniors, have expressed their frustration regarding the fact that the school purchased new technology for an extracurricular activity that only affects a small population of our student body rather than for an entire grade, facing issues as incredibly important standardized tests become digital.

Zachary Fradella said, “I have not personally heard of anyone actually using that eSports room, yet the school still spent thousands of dollars on it instead of new Chromebooks for us.”

This past year, the freshman and many other grades received brand new touchscreen computers, yet the juniors who needed those computers for testing received nothing. Sophia Lora claims, “My sister is in 4th grade, and she got a brand new touchscreen computer”. 

Some see it as ridiculous and unfair that 4th graders are receiving brand new computers, while the juniors are left to struggle with their incompetent technology for their standardized tests.

Once the juniors got word that the younger grades would be receiving new Chromebooks, a student who wished to remain anonymous emailed Bethpage’s Director of Technology, Mr. Choi. The student questioned him for a current update on the new computers coming in, and if the juniors would be receiving them.

 He replied, “We are not planning on upgrading the Google Chromebook model being used by the current juniors.  We actually make our determination based on Google’s “end of life/end of support” date on each of the models.”

In summary, Choi’s response claims that the juniors will not receive new Chromebooks and that they still have a long way to go before being renewed. One can assume that the juniors did not take this reply well since almost every other grade got new Chromebooks, except the juniors, who need them for SAT and AP testing in the upcoming months. 

Please leave a comment or email administration if you feel frustrated about this issue with the current status of the junior’s Chromebooks.