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Oak-Land Junior High School is a school in southern Lake Elmo in Washington County, Minnesota. It runs from seventh to ninth grade and 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 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 (Vice Principal).

Technology

In the fall of 2003, under the leadership of principal Thomas LeCloux (who retired at the end of the 2004-05 school year and was replaced by Derek Berg) and technology coordinator Tami Brass (working at St. Paul Academy and Summit School since 2006), Oak-Land decided to participate in a Apple Computer's "One to One" learning program, giving every student and staff member at Oak-Land an Apple iBook G4 laptop. This school was one of five in the country to participate in the pilot programme.

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 ousting 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 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.

In January 2008, the school was awarded, "Apple Distinguished School", for it's work in integrating technology, instruction and learning. The Apple Distinguished School designation is reserved for schools that have implemented a 21st century vision of education using Apple technology. There were only 18 schools chosen nationally to receive this designation.

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.

1. Stillwater Area Schools at stillwater.k12.mn.us

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