WINDHAM – Thanks to a new lease with the Maine Department of Education, Windham High School students and staff will be equipped with new MacBook Air laptops when they return to school this year.

The new laptops are a key component of a broader technological overhaul that will bring 68 new Apple TV micro-consoles and a powerful new wireless network to the high school.

For the past three years, Windham High School students have used Dell Netbooks with 10-inch screens, according to RSU 14 Technology Director Bob Hickey. The new MacBooks, which have 11-inch screens, feature more powerful processors and greater memory capacity, Hickey said. Staff members will receive MacBook Air computers with 13-inch screens, according to Hickey.

The overhaul, which will deploy 1,135 new laptops to the high school, is being funded through a four-year, $1.2 million lease with the Maine Learning Technology Initiative, a 12-year-old state program designed to provide laptop access to middle and high school students across the state.

To high school Principal Christopher Howell, the new hardware represents a substantial technological upgrade.

“It’s exciting for us,” Howell said. “We really have appreciated the technology that we’ve had. This technology is taking it to a different level.”

The state’s laptop initiative, which began under Gov. Angus King in 2002, was originally geared exclusively toward seventh and eighth graders. Windham and Raymond middle schools have participated in the program for 12 years, according to Hickey.

Students at RSU 14 middle schools use iPads through the program.

When the state initiative was expanded to high schools in 2009, Windham High School obtained the Dell Netbooks for students. But, according to Hickey, the district’s technology department secured a three-year warranty for the computers. Last year, he said, Windham High School technology specialist Pam Hecker and her staff kept busy repairing the machines after the warranty expired.

“We worked them a year beyond their supported warranty,” Hickey said. “So we did internal repairs and robbed parts from one machine to fix another, but you can only do that so long beyond warranty. We were due for a technology refresh.”

Last year, high school administration polled students and staff, asking whether they preferred Windows or Apple machines. Apple won with a two-thirds majority, Hickey said.

According to Howell, the Apple TVs, which are digital media players that wirelessly stream computer data into television screens, will replace traditional projectors in Windham High School’s classrooms. The micro-consoles will allow students and teachers to project their computer screens in front of a class, Howell said.

“It allows us to have greater flexibility in what can be projected,” he said. “If anything, what it does is it allows you to sync to a projector wirelessly instead of a cord.”

According to Hickey, the new Apple TVs will rely on the school’s new wireless network, which will make use of Apple’s “cloud” storage system.

“We’ll be doing a lot more streaming through the air than we’ve ever done in the past,” Hickey said. “That’s why you need a more robust wireless network.”

Despite the abundance of new-fangled hardware at Windham High School, Howell said that traditional instruction will not be superceded by the forces of technological progress.

“The computer is not the primary deliverer of instruction,” Howell said. “That’s the role of the teacher. If anything, the machines are acting as a support for what teachers are trying to do in the classroom.”

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A CLOSER LOOK

Local students are returning to school in coming weeks.

Regional School Unit 14 (Windham-Raymond): Students in grades 1-9 start school Tuesday, Aug. 26. Students in grades 10-12 start Wednesday, Aug. 27. Kindergartners start Thursday, Aug. 28. There is no school Friday, Aug. 29.

School Administrative District 6 (Bonny Eagle): Students in grades K-6 and grade 9 start Wednesday, Aug. 27. All other students start Thursday, Aug. 28. There is no school Friday, Aug. 28.

SAD 61 (Lake Region): The first day for all students is Tuesday, Sept. 2.

SAD 15 (Gray-New Gloucester): The first day for all students is Wednesday, Sept. 3.

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Pam Hecker, Windham High School’s technology specialist, sits in front of a wall of new MacBook Air laptops. More than 1,000 of the new computers will be put to use by teachers, staff and students at the high school this year.