Thanks to a voter-approved tax levy, the Coupeville School District has spent more than $1 million upgrading computers in the classroom.

Voters nearly four years ago approved a technology levy that gave the school district $300,000 a year.

That levy expires in 2014. For that investment, school officials have purchased 738 devices over the past four years. Those devices include iMacs (313), iPads (197), Chromebooks (192), displays, LCD projectors and a new school district wide phone system that was recently installed.

The phone system, which is Internet based, cost approximately $17,000. The dollars also paid for professional development for staff.

Students at the high school have been using the most recent technological upgrade — Chromebooks.

High school principal Sheldon Rosenkrance said the high school purchased 60 Chromebooks in the spring 2013 and then purchased an additional 180 at the start of the school year.

Students are using the Chromebooks during class to access information, use electronic versions of curriculum and complete assignments. It also provides basically a mobile computer lab.

“We’ve been pleasantly surprised,” Rosenkrance said about the Chromebooks.

School officials went to the voters in 2010 for approval of the levy so they could update the computers that had become obsolete and, at the time, didn’t meet with state standards.

“It’s a huge relief to me that the community is willing to support technology,” Shank said.

Jim Shank, superintendent of the Coupeville School District, said the staff will start replacing computers and other devices when it reaches five years old.

The school district will continue its efforts to maintain and upgrade its technology. He said that every student and every staff member would have access to a mobile computing device.

He added the district needs to provide the same technology that students would expect to encounter in the workplace.

He added that state testing will soon be computer based and the district needs to make sure enough devices are available to accommodate students.

With the expiration of the school district’s technology levy approaching, Shank said he is recommending the school board approve a resolution to seek another four-year levy, which would go to voters in early 2014.

He said the state doesn’t provide any dollars through the basic education allocation for technology improvements.