English teacher Jessica Friot, District Clerk Kay Amo, and English teacher Marcia White show some of the Kindles purchased in part with a donation to E-K from the Corning Foundation. Mrs. Amo was instrumental in obtaining the donation.

RUSSELL -- Some students at Edwards-Knox Central School will be reading novels for English classes on Kindles this year, not with typical books in their hands, with some help from the Corning Foundation.

New York State recently released a new list of English class materials for next year. Many of the state-approved books are not owned by the district, and to buy them would cost thousands of dollars.

With more than 65 percent of their students receiving free or reduced priced meals in the school district, buying the books through the regular school budget is not an attractive prospect

Amazon has a program that allows a school to buy the books in an electronic format, and purchasing one title allows the school to share it on all e-readers owned by the school.

Edwards-Knox has owned only 15 e-readers, but to implement the cost-saving program, they had to buy at least 50 Kindles.

A Kindle without wi-fi capability, which is all that is needed, costs $79 with a protective cover. For 50, that’s $3,950.

But when approached, the Corning Foundation made a $1,500 donation to the school to help with the purchase, for which the school is grateful.