Portage Public Schools – Learning for the Future: 1-1 Computing Initiative

Over the last twenty years, our community has shown their generosity and faith in Portage Public Schools by passing several millages to fund state of the art facilities, enhance programming, and otherwise help ensure our students have access to one of the best educational systems in the state.  With the passage of the most recent bond millage in 2015, Portage has entered into another chapter of innovation.  We have begun the process of providing each student with access to an individual computing device, an initiative called 1-1 Computing.

In the summer of 2015, we launched this initiative with over a million dollars in infrastructure upgrades throughout the district in order to prepare our network and systems for the dramatic increase in devices.   During the 2016-2017 school year we deployed Chromebooks to the teaching staff and outfitted every third, fourth, and fifth grade classroom with a cart of Chromebooks.  The next phase of this project will include providing devices to our middle and high school students.  This assignment process will be phased in over the course of the next two and a half years, starting with the sixth, ninth, and tenth grade students.  Each  fall we will assign devices to the incoming 6th and 9th graders, repeating this cycle until deployment is complete.

To support this initiative, we’ve created this website as a resource for parents, guardians and students.  Here you will find tips and tricks, frequently asked questions and, hopefully, good answers, support information, and information on safe computing and digital citizenship.   I encourage you to review the materials included here, as well as check back from time to time for new and updated information.

These are exciting times for Portage Public Schools.  On behalf of the technology team and the PPS staff at large, we look forward to providing your learners with a rich educational experience to prepare them for their future.

Regards,

Daniel J Vomastek, Director
Information and Technology Systems
Portage Public Schools