By Thomas Sellers Jr.
By the end of next month, the classrooms of Millington Central High School will have a new look. The process for equipping each student at MCHS with their personal laptop is underway. The computers have been ordered, shipped and now resided at MCHS. And the person in charge of organizing the distribution to students, setting them up and informing parents is MCHS Librarian Shirey Szalay . On Dec. 18, MCHS sent home a letter to parents about the One-On-One Program and mandatory parental meetings starting January 9, 2019 at 3 p.m. on the campus of MCHS. “We’re instituting a one-on-one program at Millington Central High School, that each student will have their own learning device,” Szalay noted. “They will be taking those home with them at night. So they are theirs during the entirety of the whole school year to work on assignments, projects or whatever they need to do.” In January, MCHs students will be issued a Lenovo ThinkPad laptop as part of the implementation process. Another phase of transforming into a one-on-one school is the parental involvement. “The purpose for having the parents to come is for them to learn about the devices their children are going to get,” Szalay said. “Secondly for them to understand why we are doing this. Why we are moving into this one-on-one environment and what the purpose is. “Third, for them to understand to how they are expected to take care of the device because these are not inexpensive,” she continued. “We want them to understand what their responsibilities are as well as the student’s as regard to this program. And we need them to learn about some optional insurance they may want to purchase for incidental damage.” At these meeting there will be representatives present from the MCHS administration, Millington Municipal Schools technology department, MCHS implementation team and others to provide parents with information. Parents or guardians must be present for at least one of the three scheduled meetings and sign the paperwork in order for their student to be issued their device in a timely manner. “We’re preparing our children to move into this 21st Century workforce and continue to improve their education,” Szalay concluded. “They need to become accustom to how to work daily in an online working environment. And now there are ways to increase our curriculum to benefit our students.” The first meeting is set for Jan. 9 at 3 p.m. in the MCHS Cafeteria. An evening meeting has also been added for that day in the same venue at 6 p.m. The second meeting day will be held Jan. 10 at 6 p.m. also in the Cafeteria. The final scheduled meeting is Jan. 11 at 10 a.m. in the Civic Center Auditorium.
Paperwork must be signed by Jan. 18, 2019. Then devices will be issued to students the last week of January.
