March 28, 2024
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Sandwich School District awarded $139,000 grant to pay for student Chromebooks

SANDWICH – Sandwich School District 430 has received an additional six-figure grant that would allow the district to provide an electronic learning device for each child this school year, according to state and local school officials.

According to an Illinois School Board of Education news release sent Monday, Sept. 21, Sandwich schools received $139,094 in Digital Equity Formula Grant funds as of this month. The state grant is meant to help close the digital divide among Illinois students as many are participating in hybrid or fully remote learning, state officials said in the news release.

Wally Marquardt, curriculum director for Sandwich School District 430, said Monday the money received from the state's digital equity grant fund is on top of the about $240,000 in CARES Act funding the district already has received so far. He said the additional recent grant funding would help the district purchase 2,100 devices so each student in grades pre-kindergarten through 12th grade can be assigned their own device for the 2020-2021 school year.

"Which is bookoo dollars," Marquardt said.

Marquardt said the touch-screen Chrome tablets that would be used for pre-kindergarten through first grades cost roughly $305 each. He said the more traditional Chromebooks with touch screens that would be used by second graders cost $280 each and more Chromebooks laptops without touch screens for third through 12th grades would cost $225 each.

Marquardt said the overall new Chromebooks purchase with the additional grant funds also would include 25 devices that have built-in WiFi for students who have poor or lacking internet capabilities at home. He said district officials thought it was important to have those options available so those students can still participate educationally as any other student in the district could.

“We’re thankful that we have access to these funds as opposed to having to use local funds, which we don’t have,” Marquardt said.

Sandwich schools had their first day of school on Sept. 8 for both hybrid and fully remote students, according to district officials.

Yorkville School District 115 received $372,063 in those grant funds, according to state officials. Plano School District 88 received $159,314 and Oswego School District 308 received $1,024,992, per state data.

Katie Finlon

Katie Finlon

Katie Finlon covers local government and breaking news for DeKalb County in Illinois. She has covered local government news for Shaw Media since 2018 and has had bylines in Daily Chronicle, Kendall County Record newspapers, Northwest Herald and in public radio over the years.