School has been extremely different this year. Students have spent the majority of the year online and are just now getting back in the classroom. Along with students returning, another notable change is being made. Fayette County is introducing a new network to Henry Clay and other schools in the district. However, this change will have negative consequences for students.

“With the new system, they will not [be able to connect to the network with their personal devices],” HC Technology Resource Teacher Timothy Bernardi said. “Everyone will need a school-issued chromebook.”

This change is expected to take place within the next month or two.

“I don’t think they have a hard date set,” Bernardi said. “They say by the end of spring break, but… it depends on pickups and everything else.”

HC does have enough chromebooks to accommodate everyone who requested one.

“When this information came out, we went to the district and talked to them about how many students we still had that needed a district chromebook,” Bernardi said. “We were about 600 chromebooks short, and they sent over the 600.”

The school has been distributing these chromebooks throughout the three weeks of school and anticipates that all students will have one by the time the new network arrives.

“We’ve been giving them [out]… as fast as we can,” Bernardi said.