All freshmen who have school issued iPads are allowed to keep them over the summer to eliminate extra set-up work at the beginning of the year.

According to a District 95 email sent to all parents regarding changes in the District’s Mobile Learning Initiative, returning students are able to keep their iPads over the summer break. The goal is to provide the students a chance to continue learning with the aid of digital resources, the email said.

“We felt that it wasn’t completely necessary to bring in all of the iPads and reset them, just because all of the information is already on these iPads. That would allow students to get back into their learning quicker,” Kyle Bajor, sophomore iAgent, said.

There are other reasons to hold onto the iPads, including updates and app deliveries which can be completed wirelessly,  according to the District 95 email.

Megan Kalafut, junior iAgent, offered another advantage.

“I know the math department usually hands out summer packets […] and then the students, if they have summer packets, can just do them on the iPad,” Kalafut said.

In previous years, the iPads were collected before summer break because the operating systems were not able to be updated at home, according to Kalafut.

A freshman with a school issued iPad, McKenna Toussaint, commented on how she would be affected by this change.

“Personally, I’m glad we get to keep the iPads over the summer, so that we don’t have to go through the hassle of setting them back up at the start of the school year. This means we won’t lose our notability notes, pictures, or have to download apps again,” Toussaint said.

Matt Wilhelm, science teacher, who uses iPads in his classroom, brought up the point of possible damages happening to the iPads over the summer break.

“You figure a lot of kids use them to take pictures outside, take videos, and do other things over the summer,” Wilhelm said.  “It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the kids will have to be careful.”