CARIBOU – In a few weeks, local seventh- and eighth-graders will be lugging one more thing home with them – their laptop computers.

The Caribou Board of Education approved Wednesday night a proposal by Diane Parent, Caribou Middle School principal, to allow the pupils to take their laptops home, according to Superintendent Frank McElwain.

Also in school board news, a 34-year veteran teacher submitted her resignation.

This is the first time the equipment will be permitted to leave the school, which is halfway through its second year in the laptop program, McElwain said Thursday.

Faculty and pupils have spent the time getting comfortable with managing the portable computers during class, but are ready to further utilize the technology, the superintendent said.

“Teachers say they’re ready to extend assignments beyond classroom time,” McElwain said. “We’re all more savvy about the requirements and what we need to ask students to do to be responsible.”

The school department has sought the advice of Maine schools that already allow the laptops to be taken home, he said.

The department also plans to self-insure the computers for the remainder of the school year, McElwain said.

As a safeguard, the department has organized a training session for parents, “so they can help students at home and make sure the equipment is well taken care of and returned,” the superintendent said.

The department will send letters home to parents in the next few days to notify them of the training. For a pupil to be eligible to take a laptop home, parents must participate in the session.

Parents and pupils also will sign a set of guidelines accepting responsibility for the equipment before it can be taken home.

Two training sessions will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. and 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 18. Sessions will be held in the Caribou Middle School library.

McElwain said the department might offer a follow-up training for parents who cannot attend the sessions.

Rhoda Ouellette, who has taught family and consumer science at Caribou Middle School for 34 years, submitted her resignation.

Ouellette and her husband, Dave Ouellette, principal of Caribou High School, both plan to retire at the end of the school year, McElwain said.