STANDISH – Apple iPads once thought earmarked for Bonny Eagle High School will instead be used by elementary school students in Standish, following a decision announced Monday by the School Administrative District 6 school board.

About 400 iPads will be split among second- and third-grade students, as well as teachers and staff, at Edna Libby and Steep Falls elementary schools, according to Superintendent Frank Sherburne.

School officials said the final destination of the tablet computers had been up in the air, pending research into where they would fit best into the curriculum. But rumors around the high school had the iPads headed there.

“There was a huge rumor that they were going to freshmen,” said Lauren Sharpel, the editor of the high school newspaper, The Eagle Times which published a piece about the issue in June. “So we asked [high school Principal Beth] Schultz and she said there wasn’t a definite plan. I guess there was an email asking for the opinion of freshmen teachers and we just thought that meant we were getting them. We were told by the principal there was no plan.”

For Sharpel, second- and third-graders receiving the iPads over freshmen isn’t an issue.

“Well, I’m a senior so I wasn’t getting them anyway,” Sharpel said. “So it doesn’t really matter to me.”

Sherburne backed up Schultz.

“There was never a definite plan on where the iPads were going,” he said. “We discussed the high school students, but I made it very clear to taxpayers we would research where they would be used best.”

The superintendent’s office ultimately decided they would go to the elementary schools, and the decision was announced at Monday night’s meeting.

“We feel there are significant apps that will help enhance our literacy and numeracy programs in those grades,” said Sherburne. “The high school level would still need to use their laptops due to missing programs on the iPad. At this time we didn’t feel they would be effective there.”

School board Chairman Lawrence Miller solidified the findings.

“My personal understanding of the change in plan is that there is more availability for curriculum in the lower grade levels,” said Miller. “In order to use the technology appropriately, the curriculum needs to be employed where it can be used effectively. That can be done in the lower grades.”

The iPads have not been purchased yet, and Sherburne could not provide a final cost for the tablets. However, taxpayers in SAD 6 approved a technology device budget of $106,600 on June 12.

For some, the purchase of such technology seems extravagant after the recent staff layoffs. In a June 2012 opinion article in the Eagle Times, freshman teacher Melissa Mackenzie was quoted in an email to Sherburne stating, “In light of all the cuts that happened, I must say the timing in telling us that money has been found in the budget for freshmen iPads makes the influx bittersweet.”

Sherburne assured Mackenzie the staff cuts were unavoidable and not connected to the technology devices. In the same article Sherburne responded, “We cannot afford the positions we have reduced; we did the reductions (to the teaching staff) because we could without impacting opportunities for students.”

Mackenzie could not be reached for comment this week.

The 2012-2013 school year will be used as a base study for the iPads compared to other learning techniques across the state for that age group.

“We are creating a study,” said Sherburne. “We will compare data in other elementary schools in the hopes of improving our classrooms and limiting how much money we are putting out and how it would benefit learning.”

“It’s a trial project,” said Miller. “We will see how they do.”

Meanwhile, Joanne Lannin, school newspaper adviser and Bonny Eagle High School English teacher, praised the efforts of Allie Parkin, the student reporter.

“Allie started out thinking she’d be writing an opinion piece about why seniors should get the iPads,” Lannin said this week. “She did a very thorough job uncovering and reporting what turned out to be an interesting and much-talked-about story.”