Eaton High School, within a district who states, “our business is children” is the same district that is prohibiting students to efficiently learn due to technical issues. A school is a place where students should be given the best opportunity to succeed educationally and until the high school’s tech issues are fixed, this will not be achieved. When considering the significant downfall of the school’s technology within the past two years, initiative to find a solution should have been reached at the beginning of the 2025 school year. EHS students and staff were promised at the beginning of the school year for change, yet the wait for changes to be implemented continues.
2026 seniors have recognized the decline in technological opportunities throughout their years at Eaton High School. Current seniors have experienced the downfall in technology from their freshman year and it’s safe to say they are happy to be moving on from the burden of Eaton’s technology.
Senior Aya Kinoshita said, “Since my freshman year the technology in our school hasn’t ever been great. We’ve had to deal with connection problems, blocked websites, and just slow internet in general. Comparing this year to three years ago, I can say that the connection has gotten way worse. A lot more websites are being blocked and important apps like gmail are taking forever to load. This isn’t just annoying when we’re trying to do work, but it also affects the quality of work we’re able to do. without websites that we need and waiting minutes, it makes doing work much more complicated. A lot of people have outside computers that they bring to school instead of using the school Chromebooks. Even though they aren’t connected to the school at all, there are also many problems with connection and usage of specific websites, making it just as difficult.”
EHS students are given school issued Chromebooks that they are instructed to use for their school work, disregarding the failure these computers are presenting students and staff with. From Wi-Fi issues, lack of timelines, and sites essential to successfully learning being blocked, students have tried bringing in their own Chromebooks for a temporary solution. Most high schools in Colorado allow for their students to bring their personally owned computers to school. This allows for students to have access to everything they need and potentially get away from the burdens of school issued computers.
Maycee Williams, a student at Loveland High School, said, “I am allowed to bring my home computer to school. It connects to the internet and I can access all of the materials I need for school. I have heard some schools have to connect to a hotspot to use their personally owned computers and I am so glad this is not the case for Loveland. Using that method would make things so much more complicated as well as more common to see failure among your devices. Being able to connect to the internet at school and access all I need through my personal device has been so relieving, efficient, and saved me so much stress over the years in high school.”
At EHS, students are allowed to bring personally owned computers but the success rate with using them at the school isn’t very high. Students have to connect to their personal hotspot instead of the school’s Wi-Fi. Even with connecting to a personal hotspot, the service at the school is not great, but ironically, this non-reliable service is still better than their school-issued Chromebooks most of the time. Students should be allowed to connect to the school’s Wi-Fi and be able to successfully use their personal devices. With this, when students are using personal devices, they are still having websites being blocked that are needed for educational use. Websites such Aims College platforms are still being blocked and students are frustrated why this hasn’t been resolved. Mostly juniors and seniors are the ones dealing with this problem, but by the time the current sophomores become juniors, a solution needs to be found. Online classes are stressful enough without having issues with sites being blocked. If this school wants students to succeed at the highest level with classes connected to college platforms, this issue needs to be looked into. Online classes are something that will not go away, and it is unacceptable that websites like these are blocked in the first place.
EHS student Skye Lefever (27) said, “I use a platform called D2L to do my online class and when I am in the building I cannot access this platform, so I am required to do all the work for my online class at home, creating so much more work for me. It’s also frustrating that another platform we use for this class called Yellowdig is completely blocked and I have heard other students experienced issues with this with little feedback for a solution. I have been forced to use my Macbook because when I use my Chromebook I can’t get on to that platform or another platform. I found that using my Macbook works a lot better for most things. Xello is one of the things I have trouble with on my Macbook due to the fact that it is blocked, but at the end of the day, I would rather bring my Macbook to school considering my Chromebook works significantly slower and affects my learning even more.”
At this point it’s unacceptable that a long-term solution has not been brought up considering the amount of issues EHS students have with websites and technology in general. It is highly advised that students use school-issued Chromebooks, but why would they continue to do so if it is affecting their learning? This is a school-wide issue that concerns all the staff and students at the high school and nothing is changing. It was said that more websites would be unblocked and this year issues would be resolved, yet we have seen absolutely no change. EHS is the same environment that is depriving their students of learning effectively and efficiently due to lack of effort in examining the problems among the district’s technology.
Doug Preston, EHS history and psychology teacher, said, “I think [the student] experience is probably the one that’s the least talked about. [Teachers] get in here and we have trouble getting on Google Classroom or whatever it is, we experience issues, but I think what you students are experiencing is the most important because at the end of the day, the purpose for us being here is the students, so I think your lived experience is by far the most important.”
Preston had some great points and personal input with the matter of the technology at EHS. His point brought great light to the motto our district preaches, “our business is children.” But the thing that Preston vocalized so well is the lack of noticing students’ experience with this un-reliable technology. We have had these issues for two years now and most students would firmly believe things have gotten worse. Students have tried to bring attention to the issues but it seems that fixing the tools used to teach students must fall somewhere outside the job description. It seems harsh in some ways to blame a particular person on this matter, but honestly maybe we should start, because nothing is being resolved. The people of this district need to come together and find a long-term solution ,and for upcoming students at EHS, I hope we can say this issue becomes better and not worse in the years to come.
EHS acknowledges that the tech department is willing to come into the school when certain issues are presented, but the technology as a whole needs to be looked at. The problem isn’t occurring for one student or one staff member; these tech issues have been growing at EHS and no solutions have been put in place. Being accusatory isn’t a way to approach this issue, but enough is enough, something needs to change. Someone in this district needs to make the technology issues a priority and dismiss the excuses. Students need technology that allows them to academically succeed at the highest level, and this school’s technology is staying in the way of that goal. Someone needs to make the motto “our business is children” actually a reality. Quite simply, the fact that change hasn’t been established is proof that this statement has little to no meaning.
As a fellow senior, all I can say is that I will be glad to not have to experience Eaton High School’s technology again. It’s frustrating as a student to hear an issue will get better but at the end of the day it seems like no one truly cares enough to fix the issues. The students of this school deserve better and we can only hope realization, and accountability, arise in order for success in the classroom to return. Students are taught the Eaton acronym starting in freshman year – Excellence, Awareness, Tenacity, Ownership, and Noteworthiness – an inspiring standard for students, though apparently a more flexible guideline when considering the best technological opportunities for students.
