James Madison Memorial High School tech team

Scott Girard:

While in the school, much of the students’ work is focused on the Chromebook devices that every student has. During what would otherwise be a study hall period, those in the program go to the library, where they look over devices that aren’t working.

Memorial library media technology specialist Kristin Delorme said the idea was discussed pre-pandemic with the school’s business education teacher, Bill Richardson, but never took off. As students returned this year, though, district instructional technology user manager Eric Benedict recalled those previous discussions and brought the idea back, with Delorme still glad to have them in the library to help.

“People just kept coming to me and saying, ‘Are you still interested in doing this? And would you be willing to do this?’” Delorme said. “I just said yes to everything. Once it got to the students actually being here, that’s kind of my favorite part is working with the students.”

Benedict said the students are determining what’s wrong with Chromebooks that have been turned in from their peers, with a “checklist of things for them to go through as they’re cleaning and fixing.” They are expected to work on screen replacements and key replacements on keyboards soon, too, he added.