SANBORN — After almost two years of research and a seven-day testing period by 10 fourth-grade students in June, the Niagara-Wheatfield School District has decided to order 275 Dell mini laptop or netbook computers for its fifth-graders who will kick off the first phase of the district’s “One-to-One Computing Program” in September.

Mary Ann Buch, the district’s director of instructional technology, said she sent all the necessary paper work to Erie-1 BOCES so that BOCES can order the computers. School officials said the state will reimburse the district for 56 percent of the cost because the computers were ordered through BOCES. The computers will cost less than the $232,273 the district budgeted for the devices. The price includes a three-year warranty on each device from Dell.

Under the “One-to-One Program” the district plans to provide all student from fifth through 12th grades with their own mini laptops over the next four to five years. In September 2012, incoming fifth graders and ninth graders are expected to receive the small laptops with 10-inch diagonal screens as well and the process will continue until all secondary students have a computer to work on within the district’s wireless network.

Buch said the district was painstaking in its research before deciding on the Dell product. She said district officials “gave six companies a shot” including Apple and IBM.

The district also checked out Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Acer and Nexlink mini computers and had fourth graders try all of them out over a seven-day period and assess and evaluate each model to see which they would like best to use this year as fifth graders.

“They filled out assessment sheets and found they liked Acer best overall and after that Dell. They liked Acer because of its size and weight and keyboard and they liked its mouse just as much as the Dell’s. They liked the Dell best for battery life, durability and screen size,” Buch said.

Buch said Acer and Nexlink devices were eliminated based on technical reasons since they were not compatible with the speed of the district’s new wireless network installed last year. And since the Dell and Hewlett-Packard laptops did, the final decision came down to money, warranty and the children’s preference, Buch said.

“Since the HP was more expensive and the kids liked the Dell better, the children’s opinion helped us with the Dell selection,” she said.

Buch said the computers are guaranteed to be delivered to the district by Aug. 9. The district’s 17 fifth-grade teachers will come in for a week-long training program on the new laptops starting Aug. 16.

The district’s Technology Committee recommended securing laptops for all secondary students to help improve student performance by giving them access to most of the educational programs the district has purchased for them to use whether they are at school, home or somewhere else.

“The  program is educationally sound because so many of the resources we have purchased to use with students are being delivered via computer and having only four or five computers in a classroom now, there’s not enough time to get all the students to use them long enough to reap the benefits” of those programs,” Buch said. “We have a lot of good things but many kids don’t have access to them long enough to make a difference. The new One-to-One Computing Program would take care of that problem.