Mooresville Graded School District is located just north of Charlotte, NC with approximately 6,000 students in the district spread over 8 schools with about 400 staff. Several factors caused the district to pursue a shift to the digital classroom. Firstly, with a large percentage of students having no access to technology in the home, Mooresville made it a mission to close the digital divide in their student population. It was important to level the playing field and provide digital resources to all students, especially those who may have had a difficult time applying for college and gaining scholarships after high school. Additionally, the district wanted to provide relevant instruction and 21st century readiness for when their students graduated. This meant teaching critical thinking and communication skills that would be necessary to work in the real world environment once students completed school. To Superintendent Dr. Mark Edwards, the solution to these issues was launching a digital conversion. As the district underwent this initiative, he made it clear that they were putting emphasis on the shift to digital curriculum and classroom instruction and not on the devices themselves. Dr. Edwards goal was to create a learning environment where students have tools and technology accessible at their fingertips.
After careful consideration, Mooresville decided to deploy MacBooks to every student as part of their initiative. For Dr. Scott Smith, Chief Technology Officer, deploying 4,000 MacBooks meant making some critical decisions in terms of what to do to protect their substantial investment. Mooresville ultimately chose to partner with Brenthaven to provide backpacks for their students. The decision to choose Brenthaven to protect the students’ technology was based on the need for Mooresville to have a true partner in their large-scale deployment who they could rely on to provide highly protective bags and a lifetime of support so that the bags could be replaced and refreshed as needed. Brenthaven has been honored to be that partner. With over 10,000 backpacks provided to date, Brenthaven continues to work with Mooresville to support their deployment each year since their conversion.
