TAVARES, Fla. — Lake County school leaders plan to spend nearly $1 million to install Wi-Fi at every school in the district.
It would be the second Central Florida school district to do so.
Administrators said students will be able to bring their own laptops, but the school system will still have control over the internet.
"I think we'll be in the top 5 or 10 percent of probably the nation," said Creed Wheeler, IT director for the school district.
According to Wheeler, Wi-Fi will go in all 45 county schools with 1,800 wireless devices.
Administrators will then allow students to bring their own laptops or tablets to class, cutting down the need for textbooks.
Administrators estimate that up to 75 percent of the students already have a laptop or tablet. For the other 25 percent, the schools have enough desktop computers to fill in the gaps.
"We definitely don't want a situation where we have haves and have-nots," said Chris Patton.
Last fall the district distributed 1,200 iPads to students at the new Lake Minneola High School.
Administrators said they don't have the money for more of that. They said they do believe wireless classrooms lead to better grades. And they insist that though students would be bringing their own devices, they would not be able to log onto any prohibited websites.
"You always have to look and see how you can block that stuff. But they are going across our network and our Internet. So, we still provide that filter," said Wheeler.
Wheeler was asked about students who may have already downloaded something they shouldn't have.
"It would be no different than when I was an administrator in a school and a kid brought in a dirty magazine," said Wheeler.
Back in those days they caught the student in the act and took the magazine. Wheeler said it will be the same thing with an iPhone.
Officials said Wi-Fi should be in place in all Lake County schools by December.
WFTV
