Laptop Program
2024 Laptop Pickup Information
Requirements - Forms and Fee
Before picking-up laptops, please complete the requirements listed below.
- Required Forms in Genesis Parent Access
- Process the $60 Laptop Technology Usage Fee in one of two ways:
- Preferred - Online through MySchoolBucks - if you need help, please follow these instructions
- Alternatively - Students may bring in a check for $60 payable to PVRHSD with your student's name in the memo portion of the check
- Preferred - Online through MySchoolBucks - if you need help, please follow these instructions
Students: Required Forms in Genesis Student Access
Schedule
Laptops for new students will be available starting August 12 during the following times:
- Mondays and Wednesdays: 12:30pm - 2:30pm
- Tuesdays and Thursdays: 8:30am - 11:30am
- No Distribution on Fridays
- Last day of early pickup will be August 22, 2024
Important Notes about Pickup:
- All requirements (see above) must be complete before pickup.
- Students MUST be present to pick-up the laptop.
- Students should plan for 10-15 minutes of time to login and test the laptop.
- Parents are welcome to accompany their child, but they cannot pick-up the laptop for their child.
- Early pickup is NOT a requirement.
- If students are not available for early pickup based on the schedule above, their laptop will be available the first few days of school.
- Teachers are aware that new students may not have their laptop on the first day of school.
Below is information regarding our laptop program, both past and present. If you have further questions about our program, please feel free to contact us.
Program History
The beginning of the initiative, from concept to the first district-wide laptop launch, spanned four years.
In the early stages, the district set clear goals including the continued improvement of instruction through addressing the skills of the 21st century teacher and learner, in an effort to better reflect both society and the workforce, and to best prepare students for their college careers.
Throughout the process of developing our 1:1 Laptop eLearning Initiative, we made the time to perform research in an effort to ascertain what the experts were thinking in the area of transforming education through the use of technology in the classroom. Additionally, visitations and contacts were made to those districts who had taken the steps to implement 1:1 laptop initiatives of their own.
While the research continued, we began discussions with those companies that could provide the hardware, infrastructure and security components needed to realize the goals of the program. Virtually every major laptop vendor visited the Pascack Regional High School district to discuss their solutions. We also met with network and laptop security providers of the time to learn what would be needed to create an environment where students can take their laptops home and enjoy them for educational use 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
Critical to the success of the project at that time was the design and implementation of Professional Development. During August of 2004, 90 staff members reported to the district to receive their laptops and participate in a 3-day summer camp. The work of that event focused on the effective integration of the use of technology into instruction. Since that initial activity, the district continues to focus on effective technology integration, offering pertinent and effective professional development activities.
A key component of our infrastructure has been provided by the LightPath division of Cablevision. Our district buildings are connected via a Private Fiber Network, creating a wide area network monitored and maintained by LightPath. This configuration allows both students and staff to login to our network during the day from anywhere within a district building.
Over the years, we have made many upgrades to our Internet service to assure adequate service. We initially had a T1 line, with bandwidth of 1.5 Mbps. Today, we have nearly 2000 times that original bandwidth, with a 1Gbps circuit in each of our high school buildings. Each circuit primarily serves its respective school, but networking equipment is configured to failover to one circuit if the other fails. This enhanced Internet service supports remote access to all district services for students and teachers, helping to extend the school day with the convenience of having one's digital materials available at any time, and from anywhere.
Today, technology tools are woven into the fabric of teaching and learning at Pascack Valley Regional, creating a culture of innovation, inquiry, and individuality that promotes achievement and choice. With a wide-range of cloud-based&resources available for use by our teaching staff, students have the opportunity to learn at their own pace, improve on skills outside of the classroom, and connect beyond the walls of our physical buildings.
In 2004, this all seemed like a risky venture. Today, our teachers and students could not imagine high school without our 1:1 Laptop Initiative!
Our Program Today
Student and Faculty Experience
Today we issue over 2,300 laptop units to our students, faculty and administrators. Laptops are issued with a base image of software allowing all students to use a common productivity platform. Some of the titles on the laptop include Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Cloud Suite. Depending on the classes a student is taking, we make additional software titles available through our "Self Service" resource, allowing students to install necessary software and/or updates at anytime, from anywhere.
Throughout the school year, if students and faculty have questions, our Technology Specialists are available to assist with their hardware and software issues. Our Technology Specialists are Apple Certified Technicians, handling all warranty and non-warranty issues on premise and helping to reduce our support costs while increasing turnaround times. Having a working machine is a requirement at Pascack Valley Regional, and to assure we meet these requirements, we have loaners available when necessary.
At the end of each school year, Senior laptops are collected by our Instructional Technology Staff. During the summer months, our staff repairs and re-images these laptops for the incoming freshmen. All other students are allowed to keep their machines through the summer months, allowing them to continue to learn and explore passions. Students have several requirements to complete over each summer so they may use their laptop for the upcoming school year.
Behind The Scenes
Network Availability and Security is of paramount concern to the district. To assure availability, we have built our infrastructure with redundancies eliminating as many single points of failure as possible. To maximize our district investments, we make every effort to dual-purpose redundant hardware, having hardware handle load balancing functions when not needed as primary equipment. Regarding security, we have a multi-layer approach to protect our students and faculty to the best of our ability. We provide content filtering services to all devices, both on and off campus. We provide malware, anti-virus, and anti-spam protection at both the network and device levels.
To provide students as blended of an experience as possible, the district provides locally installed software, as well as public cloud based services. Together with the Office of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment, the effectiveness of the resources used by our district community are continuously monitored and reviewed. As deemed necessary and appropriate, we make changes to provided resources to assure we are best achieving our curricular requirements and our district mission.
Finally, our Curriculum and Technology Committee meets several times during the school year to discuss the progress the district is making toward the Technology Plan and the future of technology in the district. Discussions also help with forming new goals for the future Technology Plan. Our Committee is comprised of students, parents, faculty and administration from both high schools, as well as Board Members and District Administrators. Having input from all stakeholders is a key to the long success we have achieved with our Technology Program.
Whether a member of the community or someone from another school district with questions about our program, please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions you may have.