Testimonials

LocknCharge at Central High School

Central High School
Westosha School District
Located in Paddock Lake, WI
Number of Students: 1200

Mission

As a community of learners, ensure all students acquire knowledge, skills and character to thrive as contributing members to a global society through a quality, caring staff; a challenging and relevant curriculum; and diverse opportunities to achieve personal success.

Challenge

A strategic imperative for Central high school is to develop a comprehensive plan to address space and technology needs in support of an expanding student and adult curriculum. As part of this plan, a 1:1 program was put into place, starting with the 2012 freshman class. To enhance and improve student achievement, each freshman is required to bring a wireless device with a keyboard and N-rated wireless card to school every day. A direct challenge was the 300 devices for the incoming freshmen. Another challenge was how to support the students using these devices while maintaining the security and reliability of the network infrastructure.

Solution

Supplying the students with the devices went smoother than anticipated, Dr. Annette Smith, Central’s Technology Director, said. “We had prepared for 30 percent of students to need school-supplied laptops either through a lease program or through a waiver process for families who didn’t have access to the necessary hardware.” Central has had in place a program for securing and charging school-owned laptops, but since the 1:1 initiative required students to bring in their own device, the school needed to provide a safe one-to-one charging option for the students. Additionally, students were not allowed to bring devices with cameras into the locker room so a secure charging option was needed in the gymnasium area. Smith had been to an education trade show earlier in the year where she saw and liked the FUYL Cell charging technology from LocknCharge. She thought this might be just the technology needed for students to keep their computers charged for use in the classroom throughout the day.

Central High purchased two FUYL Cell stations for placement between the gymnasium and cafeteria. The thought was to install only one FUYL Cell station and then watch to see how the students responded to and used the charging lockers. However, after only two short weeks, it was clear they needed to quickly install the second FUYL Cell station as the demand for safe charging capability was higher than the one FUYL station could supply. During Freshman Boot Camp the first two days of school, the students were trained on how to use the FUYL Cell charging technology. Nancy Switalla, Administrator Assistant to the Principal, said: “A few of the kids struggled the first two weeks. At first they forgot which slot they put their laptop in or forgot the combination they used, but now very seldom does she have to assist students in remembering which locker they had placed their device based on the numbers and letters next to the key pads.

 

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