For most kids it’s hard to see someone come to school with a brand new toy that you really want. For some high school students at Tyrone Area High School, the idea is the same.

This year freshmen at Tyrone High School will receive their own Google Chromebooks, which will become their personal property after graduation. The announcement was met with disapproval from some students in the high school. Particularly many of the current sophomores, who had not previously heard of the Chromebook plan.

Sophomore Adam Zook expressed frustration when the announcement was made. “Of course I’m jealous of the freshmen,” said Zook.

“It’s stupid that the ninth graders got them and not us,” said Wyatt Hoff.

“Students should always have access to computers,” said Zook. When asked if he thought other grade levels should also receive Chromebooks Zook stated, “no grade should have them. The money should have gone to something the whole school could use, not just [computers for] one grade.”

Sophomore Anthony Politza stated, “I think it’s a cool idea, but it’s a bit unfair to the other grade levels.”

Tyrone has always had computers, but  each computer is owned by the school and not the personal property of the students.

Most  freshmen have no complaints about receiving Chromebooks to assist them in school. Not everyone can afford a laptop, so the addition of a free personal computer is welcome in numerous homes. This is what put the idea of Chromebooks into the minds of school administrators.

Glen Drager, TASD network administrator, was the first to propose the Chromebook plan. He brought the idea to administrators and it became a team decision from there. The plan, according to Drager has been “in development for over a decade.”

For the past decade, Drager and other staff members had thought of a ‘One-To-One’ deployment of personal laptop. This means that there would be one laptop for every student.

“It was really just waiting for the right laptop to come along,” Drager stated, “The goal is to make this an ongoing and expanding process, possibly to the middle school as well.”

“I would have liked to have given everyone Chromebooks,” said Drager, “but we have limited resources and had to choose a way to get started that made the most sense.”