Oak-Land Jr. High School

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Oak-Land Junior High is a school in southern Lake Elmo in Washington County, Minnesota. It runs from seventh to ninth grade. This particular school is one of five schools in the country to do a new pilot program from Apple Computer that allows all students 24/7 computer usage, called the One to One program. The computers are Apple ibook G4s with many of the latest teaching applications. The computers were integrated into Oak-Land's curriculum in the 03-04 school year. Oak-Land also has a pool, large gym, media center, and outdoor athletic facilities. Oak-Land is part of the Stillwater school district; the other public junior high is Stillwater Junior High, located northeast of Oak-Land. Oak-Land Junior High, as well as the other the schools in the district, are reputed to be academically excellent and consistently excel on state standardized exams.

Oak-Land Jr. High School is located in Lake Elmo, Minnesota. It is part of Stillwater Area Schools and is one of the two Junior High Schools in the district. Oak-Land is currently administered by Derek Berg (Principal) and Don Kirkpatrick (Assistant Principal).

[edit] Demographics

There are currently 1069 students from grades 7, 8, and 9 attending Oak-Land. This is an increase of over 30 students from the 05/06 school year. Of these students, approximately 6% self-report minority status. 1% of students are Limited English Proficient. 9% are classified Special Ed. 9% are receive free/reduced lunch.

The State of Minnesota makes Oak-Land's report card available online.

[edit] Technology

In the fall of 2003, under the leadership of principal Thomas LeCloux (retired at the end of the 2004-05 school year and replaced by Derek Berg ) and technology coordinator Tami Brass (currently at St. Paul Academy and Summit Schoolsince 2006), Oak-Land decided to participate in a one to one learning program, giving every student and staff member at Oak-Land a laptop. Although the decision was made in accordance with the district school board, it was quite controversial in segments of the community. The controversy resulted in the ouster of school board members Mary Ciccone and John Uppgren and the election of Christopher Kunze and Nancy Hoffman, both of whom ran on anti-technology platforms during the election.

Teachers were given laptops in the fall of 2003 and immediately began intensive professional development for technology integration. Students received laptops in February of 2004. The hardware given to the students in 2003 were Apple IBook G3's. In 2005, the G3's were replaced with IBook G4's. The teachers currently use PowerBook G4's and/or Macbooks. Oak-Land's entire building is equipped with a wireless network so students can connect to the Internet anywhere at school. Many classrooms also have projectors to maximize the learning environment during class. Hardware such as video and digital cameras, as well as online textbooks and database subscriptions, were made available to students as part of the technology lease. The success of the initiative is being studied by the district's Technology Advisory Task Force, comprised primarily of community volunteers employed in various areas of information technology.

This lease of hardware and services at Oak-Land, which began in September, 2003 and ends in September, 2008, cost 2.3 million dollars (for 1045 student laptops, 40+ teacher laptops, cameras, printers, database and textbook subscriptions, etc...). The program is now under the leadership of Derek Berg (Oak-Land principal as of summer, 2005), Matt Howe (Oak-Land technology coordinator as of summer, 2006), Christian Johnson (Oak-Land Apple Service Technician as of summer, 2006) and Robert Marking (Oak-Land Network Administrator as of summer, 2006).

Although the program is considered quite successful it is unclear how long the district intends to continue it beyond 2008. The district technology plan presented to the board in the spring of 2006 implied that one day it may be discontinued in favor of the cart-based laptop programs in place at Stillwater Junior High and Stillwater Area High School.

The fate of this initiative, as well as many other instructional programs in the district, is in question as the district pursues levy renewals and increases, which the school board deems necessary as a result of state funding changes.

For more information about Oak-Land's technology, go to Oak-Land Jr. High's Website. Or contact Matt Howe or Derek Berg (Principal) .

This article does not cite any references or sources. (July 2006) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.