Tuesday evening the Plymouth Community School Board decided to accept the recommendation of Technology Director Bruce Johnson and the Technology Committee to transition from MacBooks to iPads.
This is the year for the school corporation to renew their 4 year lease for the one-to-one computers for grades k-12. Johnson said he went in to the committee meeting with the expectation of continuing with the MacBooks for the upper grades and keeping the iPads for the elementary students. After evaluating both devices the committee discussed the possibility of switching to the iPads for grades kindergarten through 12th grade.
While not a supporter of iPads, Johnson said “Apple has made improvements with the management and curriculum enhancements that make the iPad an awesome education tool.”
There are some concerns and the technology department is already working towards solutions. One of those concerns is the amount of typing required in the high school. An iPad doesn’t have a keyboard so the proposal is to offer the ability to check-out a keyboard in the media center instead of having a keyboard for each student. He said they will still have close to 1,000 MacBooks in the media center that can be checked out.
He told the board there is a substantial savings annually including to the families. MacBooks are about $1,000 per to license and if the device is damaged the parents are responsible to cover the cost. The iPads offer Apple Care Plus that allows students two breaks over the four years of the lease without financial consequences. The total replacement cost for an iPad is about $250 while the Mac is about $1,000. The tech-book rental fees can be reduced to $50 instead of the $100 for the MacBooks.
Johnson said repair cost have been substantial. In 2016 it was $28,700 while in 2017 the corporation spent $44,700 and last year it was $74,100.
One of the biggest benefits of moving to the iPads is the annual savings of $200,000 for the lease payments.
High School Junior, Hugh Smith told the board the students just learned the school board was making a decision to transition to iPads on Tuesday. He said they have a major concern with each student not having their own keyboard. Other concerns were durability, battery life, and the large exposed screen. He sent an email to students and 303 students responded with 269 wanting to stay with the Mac Books, 23 moving to the iPads and 11 voted other options.
School board member Robin Cupka said “kids are adaptable” while Todd Samuelson said the value proposition was one positive item but he has also spoke with schools and heard positive comments.
The School Board voted 3 to 0 with two members absent to move forward with the new lease. Total cost over the four years is $2,370,580.
The board also gave Bruce Johnson permission to advertise for sealed bids to sell a lot containing 3,000 MacBookAir divices and a second lot of 650 iPadAir devices in May.
