The Fort Dodge Community School District will purchase 700 new Chromebooks over the summer to check out to students in grades seven and 10 this fall.

District Supervisor of Information Technology Jeremy Pearson presented his request to the Board of Education during its meeting on Monday night.

The students will receive a second generation Lenovo 500e G2 Chromebook, which is a new model of what the district has been using this past school year.

The total cost for the 700 Chromebooks will be $238,504.

Pearson also requested approval to purchase 340 Chromebooks that don’t have “all the bells and whistles,” but will be used in fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms.

“These devices are a little less fancy because they sit in carts, there’s no sending home with these devices,” he said.

These additional 340 Lenovo 100e devices will cost $76,054.60.

The funding for the Chromebooks will come from the district’s physical plant and equipment levy technology budget. The devices will be purchased through Sterling Computers, which has a state contract to provide Chromebooks to Iowa public schools.

In other business, the board held a public hearing for the 2019-2020 certified budget amendment.

No comments from the public were presented.

The board then approved the certified budget amendment, which adjusts the 2019-2020 school year budgets for instruction, support services, noninstructional programs and other expenditures.

The board also voted to extend the food service management agreement between the district and Taher Inc.

During the two previous school board meetings, the board passed resolutions to allow the district to continue paying all district employees for the duration of the school closures ordered by Gov. Kim Reynolds. Each resolution had been effective until the stated end of the school closure, but as of April 17, schools are closed for the remainder of the school year.

At Monday night’s meeting, the school board voted to continue the district employees’ pay through the end of the school year.

The school board also approved the purchase of professional development and curriculum for the early adoption of a new K-5 illustrative math curriculum program. While the curriculum won’t be mandatory for teachers to use for the 2020-2021 school year, it will be for the 2021-2022 school year. Steph Anderson, director of elementary education services, wanted to give teachers the opportunity to adopt the curriculum early.

The K-5 illustrative math curriculum and professional development will be purchased from Kendall Hunt Publishing Company of Dubuque, for $43,221.60. The funds will come from the Teacher Quality district fund and the curriculum fund.

Superintendent Dr. Jesse Ulrich noted that the district is finalizing its plans for students and staff members to retrieve their personal items from the schools. He said that the district is also having the staff have their classrooms ready by May 15 to get an “early jump” on summer cleaning and maintenance.

The district is looking at plans for holding a graduation ceremony for the Fort Dodge Senior High class of 2020 later this summer.

“When we finalize a date, we will get that out to graduates,” Ulrich said. “We’re still looking at what Class Night could potentially look like.”