Mike Messore stood knee-deep in a sea of new laptop computers.

The Barrington School Department Superintendent stopped by the high school on Thursday morning to check on the progress of the district's new 1-to-1 initiative — a technology improvement that gives a new Dell Chromebook 11 to each and every Barrington High School student this year.

Inside a windowless room near the small gymnasium, Mr. Messore found row upon row of new Chromebooks. Each had been unpackaged by a team of student employees, uploaded with a unique user log-in and aligned with the district's networks, re-boxed and then lined up in tidy rows covering half the floor-space of the room.

A label carrying a student name was affixed to the top of the box — neon pink tags for seniors and neon green for juniors.

Lining up the Chromebook boxes in rows was key, said Katie Miller, the district's director of technology. After spending months planning for the district's 1-to-1 initiative (which included research trips to other school districts in Rhode Island and Massachusetts to see which device would be best for local students), Barrington school officials were confronted with an unexpected challenge: How to prepare the Chromebooks for distribution.

At first, officials considered stacking the brown cardboard boxes on top of each other. But that proved problematic as students would not be arriving in alphabetical order to pick up the computers. Boxes on the bottom would be pancaked under a heap of other boxes.

Barrington's computer network technician, Mike Fallgren, had a solution: Rows.

"This is brilliance," said Ms. Miller. "It's so much easier."

Since early July when the shipment of 1,030 new Chromebooks began arriving, Mr. Fallgren and Scott Morpeth have led a team of four student employees as they prepared the laptops for distribution, which will take place next week.

Mr. Fallgren said the work has been a bit tedious and required an attention to detail, as one wrong digit of information entered can stymie the system.

He said workers have been preparing about 12 laptops at a time and after preparing about 500 total, they had only encountered one uncooperative computer; officials sent it back to Dell to be replaced.

Once prepped, the laptop can be accessed only by a student who is able to enter the correct log-in.

"And if it's stolen, we can shut it down" remotely, Mr. Fallgren said, adding that without the necessary log-in the laptops can't be used for much.

Mr. Messore said the Chromebooks will offer a number of advantages to local students and teachers. They will be able to work collaboratively and have the opportunity for immediate feedback. The laptops, which have a battery life of 11 hours without recharging, can also be used for administering the PARCC assessments.

Barrington High School Principal Joe Hurley said the 1-to-1 initiative allowed school officials to reconfigure some of the existing computer labs at the school for other uses. He said some of the labs will remain as they offer computers needed for specific uses, such as television production.

The district paid $233 for each Chromebook and will offer insurance policies to parents of local schoolchildren. Officials are also constructing a new computer support center inside the high school library. "STAT" — Student Technology Assistance Team — will feature high school students who will help other students with their Chromebooks. Ms. Miller said there will be some loaner laptops students can use while their Chromebooks are being repaired.

Reasons for 1-to-1

The school district's website offers a number of reasons for the 1-to-1 initiative:

• Ensures that all students have access to curriculum and supporting resources.

• Ensures that all students have equal access to productivity tools.

• Allows students to experience critical thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication with their teachers and peers both locally and globally.

• Gives teachers the ability to differentiate more effectively and proactively based on student need.

• Provides equitable access to technology for all students, eliminating the digital divide.

• Gives teachers the ability to measure what matters most and have timely actionable results. Teachers will be able to make instructional decisions in real time to meet the needs of all of their students through digital formative assessments.

Future implementation

According to district's website: "Our intention, following this first year of 1:1 implementation at BHS, will be to begin a cycle of distributing new devices to students in grades 4 and 9. At the same time, we will re-assign the devices of graduating students to grade 6, allowing a quicker path towards accomplishing our goal of 1:1 in grades 4-12 during the 20017-18 school year."

Insurance details

An insurance policy offered through the district reportedly protects students from:

• Accidental damage (from drops, liquid spills, submersion)

• Mechanical breakdown