MARYSVILLE – Pornography is not the No. 1 thing being filtered out of Chromebook requests by Marysville School District students.

It barely even makes the Top 10.

Scott Beebe, chief technology officer, said at Monday’s school board meeting that the No. 1 thing, by far, that students request and are denied are access to online games.

Such game requests were blocked 3,033,691 times, or 85 percent of the total. Porn was blocked 3,066 times, only .1 percent of the total.

Districtwide, there are 11,372 Chromebooks.

Beebe said the goal this year is to give more access to Chromebook to grade schoolers. “That was never promised” to voters when they passed the technology levy, Superintendent Becky Berg said. “That’s over and above.”

While the requests that were blocked were interesting, the major news from an academic standpoint is students are using then more and more for academics. The use of Google Classroom and Google Drive has skyrocketed. Youtube is being used more for research. On weekends, students still like their Facebook and Netflix.

Districtwide, Beebe said in the previous two days, students did 104,646 searches. Of course the use of thousands of Chromebooks means his staff is doing a lot of work fixing them. In 1 1/2 years, there have been 1,010 work orders for repairs.

Beebe’s goals are to create efficiencies, maximize value and reduce support for the Chromebooks.

Graduation credits

Also discussed was the state requirement of 24 credits to graduate from high school. Marysville has a temporary waiver until the Class of 2021, which enters ninth grade next year.

A panel starts meeting this month to work on what to do in Marysville. Currently, students can get high school credits in middle schools by passing classes like Spanish and Algebra. Other possibilities include going to trimesters, earning credits for proficiency in multiple subjects, and summer school classes.

Lori Knutson, executive director of K-12 learning and teaching, starting in June there will be public meetings on the topic.

“Everyone will be heard,” she said, adding all of the stakeholders will be surveyed.

Berg said from what she has heard from the public it wants choices, electives and opportunities for the students to help them “find their niche. What they are good at.”