The Board of Education passed a new plan in hopes to improve the technology in its schools by a 6-0 majority, with one Board member absent.

Chief operational technology officer Brandon Riffel is just one member of the technology committee. Riffel oversees the technological aspects of the district. Before being hired in November, Riffel had little knowledge of the district’s technology.

“The technology committee … had been working on a plan for about a year. Their goal was to replace the devices that are in the classrooms and the computer labs,” Riffel said. “As I dug deeper into it, I realized exactly how bad it really is [and], how much need there really is.”

Although the Bring Your Own Device policy was implemented before he assumed his position, Riffel has nothing but a positive response to the new procedure.

“I really like the BYOD idea for a number of reasons,” Riffel said. “The infrastructure that was put in place … the new wireless and the wired network was … a great move. A lot of schools do it backwards, they open things up and then they try to retrofit the network to support it, which is a plan that typically fails.”

Students have also had negative reactions to the BYOD policy. Sophomore Juli Winn does not bring technology to school due to the amount of limitations put on the wireless Internet.

“The problem is there are so many restrictions to what [websites] you can and cannot get on,” Winn said. “Sometimes you need to get on those sites to look up things.”

Many complaints from students and teachers stem from the lack of updated technology. For business teacher Patricia Brock, quality computers may be unrealistic.

“We would like to have faster computers [and] faster processing speeds,” Brock said. “We can wish for all the things in the world but we just know that’s not reality at this point.”

For senior Max DeBauge, the library desktops and wireless connection hinders school work.

“[The district] should improve just the base computers that we have in the library. All of them are really slow. [It should] possibly upgrade the Internet connection in the school … the routers, the modems or possibly find a provider that’s faster,” DeBauge said. “So, that way connecting and actually being able to do the research that you need to do inside is a lot faster.”

According to Riffel, the new technology plan calls for 3,300 technological purchases, consisting of iPads, laptops and desktops.

The Dell Latitude, the new laptop model, has a multitude of features. These include a fold flat hinge, a smudge- and shatter-resistant screen, a sealed keyboard and a 9-14 hour battery life, all built to withstand the roughest of students.

These advancements, according to Riffel, are not the only purchases being made by the district.

“This isn’t going to be the last computer purchase for the next four years, This is the first computer purchase we make because this gives us a base level,” Riffel said. “This provides computer for testing, for computer labs and for classroom computers.”