Somerset E.S. Receives 60 Laptops from Foundation

Laptop computers aren't just for college students and work-from-coffee-shop types.

At Somerset Elementary School, students, too, make use of laptops during the school day. The school has 60 laptop computers that teachers may check out and use as needed, and they are in high demand, Meera Trehan, a member of the Somerset Elementary School Foundation Board—which funded the laptops' purchase—told Patch.

The laptops came to the school in two installments. Both this year and last year, the Somerset Elementary School Foundation Board awarded a grant (this year's grant amounted to more than $34,000) to purchase 30 Dell Latitude laptop computers, along with carts for storage and transportation of the laptops from classroom to classroom, Trehan said.

The 60 laptops help foster digital learning by Somerset students, who use the computers "for a range of educational activities, including researching projects and drafting papers," Trehan said. The laptops stay in the school, and cannot be taken home by the students to do homework, she added.

The foundation raises money from parents and the community to fund grant proposals from teachers and administrators at Somerset Elementary School. The idea of bringing laptops into the classrooms originated with Principal Kelly Morris, who submitted a grant proposal for the laptops.

"These grants were the largest [Somerset Elementary School] Foundation grants in recent years," Trehan added.

The foundation, established in 1994, focuses on supporting projects in academic achievement, capital and technological improvements and community outreach. Other projects funded by the foundation have included academic after-school clubs, a school garden and field trips and family learning nights in other Montgomery County schools with fewer resources. The foundation's annual spring fundraiser will take place this May, Trehan added.