LR school computers going home
Posted on Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Finding a resting place for an old but still operable — or at least repairable — computer is a problem when a sleeker model makes its way into a home or office.
In the Little Rock School District, which has an inventory of about 7, 000 computers and a goal of replacing at least 20 percent of them every year, finding suitable storage for dated but serviceable electronics presented an even greater challenge.
But the state’s largest district is now sending many of those computers — swept clean of district programs and data, and repaired if needed — to the homes of students who don’t have computers. The Computers for Kids program has resulted in the distribution of 1, 953 district computers in the past 18 months to families who pay an average of $ 40 each for the Dell units.
“Computers for Kids gives us a win-win situation,” said Michael Peterson, coordinator of the Metropolitan Vocational Technical Skills Center, where district teenagers work part time in the late afternoon to refurbish the machines. Students and their families who are unwilling or unable to pay $ 1, 300 to $ 1, 400 for a new computer can get one at a more affordable price, Peterson said. And the district is not only able to provide students taking the two-year microcomputer course at Metropolitan with paying jobs, but also put to good use a multitude of functioning computers.
Almost all of the district’s schools have had the chance to make computers available to their families this year or last school year. More than 100 computers have been sold at each Wakefield, Stephens, and Chicot elementary schools, Dunbar and Mabelvale middle schools, and McClellan High since the program began 18 months ago.
The program does not attempt to restrict the sale of the used computers, which have expired warranties, to families of a particular income level.
But it does limit the sales to families that are without home computers, Sandy Becker, the district coordinator of the program, said last week. The individual schools are responsible for identifying eligible families.
Elizabeth Bradshaw, the mother of three children ages 5, 11 and 13, bought one of the computers, including a monitor and keyboard, last school year through Wilson Elementary.
“It was like it was a brand new computer. It came in a box with instructions and everything,” Bradshaw said.
She said that the unit has continued to work well.
Her children “always wanted a computer in our home,” Bradshaw said. “But computers are just so expensive these days. I think this has been really great for them. Even for my daughter — it’s helped her a lot. We get kindergarten programs for her.”
Bradshaw also uses the computer to track the academic progress of her oldest child through the EdLine system online. Ed-Line enables teachers to post the grades of individual students to a password-protected Web site for viewing by each student’s parents.
Beverly Jones, principal at Wilson Elementary School, said Friday that parents appreciate the opportunity to buy the discounted computers.
Her school sold 30 computers last school year and on Friday was waiting for a shipment of about 40 computers from Metropolitan to fill more orders.
“Although they can go to the library to use computers, it’s different when you have your own computer in your home because of the convenience,” Jones said. “They are very excited; $ 40 is a very reasonable price compared to the hundreds they would have to pay otherwise.”
Previously, most of the district’s out-of-use computers were stored in a warehouse to be auctioned off with other surplus equipment.
“We had a logistical problem,” said Becker, who coordinates the program in addition to his role as the district’s internal auditor. “The warehouse is unheated and uncooled. We only have an auction once a year, so we were putting these things over there and they were dying because of the environment. And, even when we had the auction, we would get very little money for them.”
In contrast to the approximately $ 2, 500 or so that is typically raised in an auction of computers, the Computers for Kids programs generated about $ 40, 000 last year, Becker said. The money from the sales is shared between the participating schools and the district.
The Little Rock schools put their share of the money in activity funds to pay for services and supplies for their students, including the purchase of new educational software for the computers that remain in the schools or for festivities such as the end-of-the-year field day — which is how Wilson Elementary is likely to spend its money this year, Jones said.
The district’s share of the money, combined with grants from community partners Bank of America, the Public Education Foundation of Little Rock and the city of Little Rock, is used for operating the program.
That includes paying minimum wage salaries to as many as eight advanced microcomputer students at Metropolitan to prepare the computers for sale, said Harvey Johnson, the microcomputer course teacher at Metropolitan. The students work from 4-8 p. m. most weekdays and in the summer.
“We have to switch parts,” Johnson said of the student employees. “We have to do major and minor repairs. We have to evaluate what is good and trash the rest. The students do a host of things. They pretty much do everything that a technician for a major corporation would do on these computers.”
Courtney Bell, 18, a senior at J. A. Fair High School and one of the program employees, worked on four computers at once at her station on a recent day.
“I’m wiping the hard drives and software,” said Bell, who plans to major in computer engineering in college.
Bell typically takes care of 12-15 units in an afternoon, barring any problems that require pulling replacement parts from another unit and installing them. The program does not buy any parts but uses parts from disabled machines.
The computer program is authorized by state law and district policy. Act 1673 of 2005 established the Public Schools Salvage Computer Loan Program that allows districts to loan computers to students or sell them at fair market value.
James Warren, executive director of support services in the neighboring Pulaski County Special School District, said his district auctions off its old computers. He applauded the Little Rock initiative.
“Wow,” Warren said. “I think that is a wonderful idea and a wonderful program. That’s a good way to get the computers back out and used.”
The Little Rock program has been a work in progress, Becker said. Initially volunteers and students in various technologyrelated classes were called on to prepare the computers for sale, but they couldn’t keep up with the volume, Becker said. The district replaces as many as 1, 400 computers a year.
“This started off in an extremely small way,” Becker said about the effort that has been done with support and guidance from school district’s technology committee. “We’ve made adjustments all along the way. People like it. It’s been fun.”
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