Facebook grant helps Crook County schools launch Learning @ Home

$50K grant funds more than 250 new Chromebooks

PRINEVILLE, Ore. (KTVZ) --- The Crook County School District Technology team spent Friday afternoon unpacking and setting up 255 new Chromebooks. Thanks to a $50,000 grant from Facebook, CCSD is making sure every student has a technology device before Learning @ Home launches next week. This includes Chromebooks or iPads.

“Facebook’s generosity is simply incredible,” said Superintendent Dr. Sara Johnson. “We’ve had a goal of being 1:1, which means every student has their own device, and Facebook made that happen.”

In what’s being called The Great Device Distribution, Barnes Butte and Crooked River elementary schools and Crook County Middle School will start handing out the new Chromebooks to families on Monday and Tuesday. High school students already have their devices.

School leaders will be staging the distribution of devices in order to follow social distancing guidelines, so parents are asked to follow the schedule. If parents need to make other arrangements, they can call the front office of their child’s school.

CCSD is also setting up Wi-Fi hotspots throughout Crook County to ensure every student has free access to the internet, and that’s a service Dr. Johnson says is vitally important.

“Equity is very important in education," she said, "and we have to find creative ways to educate our students, if they aren’t in the classroom, with access to important tools like computers and the internet.”

Additional times and locations will be finalized by Wednesday, but students can obtain Wi-Fi when parked next to any Crook County school. The devices will automatically connect to the school Wi-Fi. Details will be posted to the Crook County School District webpage as well.