Ben Franklin and P.J. Jacobs junior high schools are one step closer to having laptops in the classroom.

Ninth-grade teachers at the schools have received laptops donated by Sentry Insurance Foundation Inc. and are being trained on how to use them in the classroom and incorporate them into the curriculum.

The teachers will complete four half-day training sessions. They're learning how to use applications, such as a PowerPoint, to engage students.

"We want to look at applications different. PowerPoint doesn't have to just be a slideshow," said Jeff Tepp, technology integration specialist and teacher at Ben Franklin Junior High School.

They're also learning, among other things, how to use a polling system that can survey students and give feedback instantly about how well they understand a topic, and how to manage technology in the classroom, such as student e-mail, Tepp said.

These training sessions will be done by the time all ninth-graders receive laptops, tentatively at the start of the semester Jan. 25, assistant superintendent for educational services Art Reinhardt said.

But before then, a group of 30 to 40 students -- chosen by principals -- in both schools are expected to receive laptops by early December for a pilot program to test the laptop software and filtration system, Reinhardt said. Afterward, those students and their parents will meet with school officials to discuss any issues.

The laptops are part of Sentry Insurance Foundation's donation of more than $4.6 million to the Stevens Point Area Public School District to improve technology skills of students for when they enter the work force.

For five years, all incoming ninth-graders will receive laptops. That way, all high school students will have one by the 2013-14 school year.

Sentry Foundation is paying for everything, including infrastructure, hardware and software needs, training and measurements of student progress.

The district is working on determining the software and filtering system that will be on the computers as well as how to develop an assessment process, Reinhardt said. The laptops need to have a filter to be sure students are safe when they take them home, he said.

There will be a laptop help center in the library at P.J. Jacobs and on the second floor of Ben Franklin Junior High School for students to visit when they have problems with their computers, he said.

Tepp said students also can leave them there overnight to charge.

There will be parent meetings before the pilot program and before all ninth-graders receive their laptops.

At the next School Board meeting, on Nov. 23, Reinhardt will discuss the filtering system, acceptable use policy and parent permission forms in more detail.