Pelham Middle School sixth graders are getting Chromebooks Friday, an earlier-than-planned distristribution driven by “proactive planning for the possibility of a short or long-term closure due to coronavirus,” according to Alex Wolff, public information officer for the Pelham Union Free School District.

“This will allow students to access Google Classroom for educational opportunities if such a scenario comes to bear,” Wolff wrote in an email. “To be clear, there is no current plan to close the school.”

“Basically, we felt like given the circumstances in the county, we should equip the sixth graders with the devices now,” Wolff wrote. “We feel comfortable extending them to the students given that they use them in class currently.”

According to Wolff, handing out the laptops is also in keeping with the district policy to have seventh through 12th graders have their own Chromebooks.

Wolff said the laptops are units currently available to the students in classrooms.