CORRECTION: Maintenance issues did not result in 10 to 15 percent of students not having their iBooks, as was previously reported. Henrico Schools apologizes for the error. It is important to note that Apple has been a great partner during the last four years, said Superintendent Fred S. Morton IV. Our maintenance rates have declined significantly. However, at any given time, we were still having 4 to 5 percent of computers needing some type of repair. Apples repair efforts were resulting in more than a 96 percent repair rate within a 24-hour time frame. While we applauded this effort, we were still concerned about the amount of instructional down time. This is why loaners were one of the major areas of interest in our planning for the future.
For the past four years, Henrico County high school students, teachers and all staff have been utilizing Apple iBooks under the systems one-to-one laptop program. The lease agreement for those iBooks is up this year and the Henrico School Board decided to accept a contract from Dell Inc. for the next four years.
The five-member board voted unanimously to accept Dells contract at the April 28 meeting. In order to understand why Superintendent Fred S. Morton IV and a nine-member committee recommended Dells contract, Morton explained the process undertaken to solicit proposals.
Input was received from hundreds of teachers, students, staff, parents and community members about the challenges with the current laptop program. Some of the comments included maintenance issues, the required fees for students and teachers, and the desire for Microsoft Office.
A nine-member evaluation committee made up of teachers, principals and administrators studied the three RFPs and unanimously voted to recommend Dells proposal. I think it says a lot that the committees recommendation was 9-0 and the boards vote was 5-0, Morton said. Unanimous decisions are pretty unusual. Morton was a non-voting member of the committee.
Dells proposal includes 15,800 laptops for $17.8 million during the next four years. The per-unit price for the laptops is $1,130. Apples proposal was $1,386 per iBook.
Morton said price was not the only reason behind his and the committees recommendation. It was a number of variables, not one single thing. But, he added that Apples proposal was about $4 million more than Dells.
Both Apple and Dells proposals contained a promise to provide 2 percent of the total number of computers to use as loaner laptops. To ensure that students have access to the technology every day, Dell said it would increase that promise to 5 percent if necessary.
As for software, Morton said everyone he talked to at every level wanted Microsoft Office. The iBooks utilize AppleWorks. Office will be on every machine, Morton said.
Freeman High School Principal Dr. Ed Pruden, who was on the evaluation committee, said the switch from AppleWorks to Office will be the biggest concern for teachers. We have a commitment from Dell to make that transition smooth, Pruden said.
Other than price, loaners and software, fees were another issue for the new contract. The $50 teacher fee and $100 student deductible for damage were eliminated, although the $50 student fee will remain.
Lloyd Brown, director of technology for Henrico schools, explained the features of the new Dell Inspiron 600M laptop. The screen is 14 inches compared to the iBooks 12-inch screen. It has two USB ports and a track pad for moving the mouse. The Dells will utilize a Windows XP operating system.
Brown also addressed the question of security *how to prevent students from accessing inappropriate web sites. First of all, he said, The type of laptop does not have anything to do with security its your filters. Therefore, security will be a challenge with any product.
He said the school division would continue to maintain the most up-to-date filters and security measures.
After laying out the details, Morton assured those who attended the board meeting and the subsequent news conference that the transition from Apple to Dell at the high school level would be smooth. Were going to be thoughtful about this. This is not a race that has to be completed by Sept. 1, this is a journey. We want teachers to tell us where to start this transition and we want to make it safe for teachers to tell us about any problems.
Both Pruden and Tucker High School social studies teacher Meredyth Hoggatt, who was also on the evaluation committee, agreed that they were not starting over. This is not going to be a do-over, Hoggatt said. Its going to be a transition. Most of my students use a windows platform at home anyway.
Students and staff in elementary and middle school will continue to utilize Apple products including the iBooks. We have a great relationship with Apple, Morton said. It will be a challenge to work with both Apple and Dell, but Henrico schools has one of the best technology staffs in the country.
Morton said the process leading up to the selection of Dell was the most challenging thing Ive done in my career.
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