Because of a new laptop policy that has just been implemented this school year, Sage Hill students are now expected to bring a laptop to school everyday. Laptops will still be available for check-out at the library, but only under certain circumstances that require a student to check one out.

“We still have laptops to check out. It’s not that we didn’t like doing that or that we had any sort of problem. It was just that teachers were needing [computers] everyday. We were seeing an impact in the classroom because students weren’t prepared,”director of Library and Technology, Nikki Imai said.

According to Imai, the idea of a laptop policy had actually been circulating among faculty for over two years. Part of the inspiration behind the policy came from observations of the effects of similar policies in other schools, though Sage also looked to students to gather information on laptop usage.

“We started watching what students were already doing with laptops. We did some school wide surveys to see what students were already doing just on their own and found that something like 85 percent of students already all had a laptop…” Imai said.

Taking this and the regular demand for laptops on campus for classroom purposes into consideration, the policy was primarily passed to ensure that students were more prepared.

“…we found that students who didn’t have a laptop were at a disadvantage to the students who did have one,” Imai said.

As to why the school did not provide laptops for students themselves, Imai explained that doing so would cut significantly into the school budget, perhaps unnecessarily, considering most students at Sage have been found to own a laptop of their own. Furthermore, Imai and Sage’s technology team wanted to ensure that each student had a laptop best suited to their needs.

“We as a school are very flexible in our tool set. And some students and teachers…can just perform like crazy on a Windows machine, and some of them are really great on a Mac machine…” Imai said.

However, Imai noted that Sage does not intend to be insensitive to the needs of some students and that accommodations have been made to help those who may need it to purchase a laptop.

“…[the administration] made some changes in their system so that students who were receiving assistance had more choices with what to do with increased funds,” Imai said.

In terms of the feedback that has been received in response to the new policy, Imai stated that most has been relatively positive with little negativity.

“I think the new laptop policy won’t change much because most classes already used laptops, and a lot of people have their own laptops…so there won’t be much of a difference,” sophomore, Paul Lam said.

Still, others have been a bit less embracing but recognize the new policy’s intentions.

“I guess I can understand why they changed the policy. A lot of kids at Sage don’t really need to check out laptops, and the laptops themselves can get lost or damaged. But I still wish they hadn’t changed it,” sophomore, Taylor Garcia said.

Imai hopes the new laptop policy will put students on an equal level and promote their success in school.

“The whole point was equitability, to have the tools that you need to succeed the same as the person next to you,” Imai said.