Mansfield Board of Education approves $860K Chromebooks purchase

MANSFIELD — Each student in the Mansfield City Schools district will have a new learning device each school day beginning in February.

The Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to provide preschool through grade 12 students a Chromebook during the school day. The board approved the $860,000 expenditure to purchase nearly 2,000 Chromebook computers from Easy Graphics in Cleveland.

The purchase is expected to help close learning gaps for students.

Fayette Adams, director of the district’s technology, said the payment for this project will come from the district’s general fund. The board voted last month to move permanent improvement monies for the purchase as well.

Adams said the district has used Easy Graphics previously to purchase Chromebooks and the company was the only bidder for several of the technology project’s needs.

“We want to implement this as fast as we can,” superintendent Stan Jefferson said.

The measure would assure that every student in preschool through 12^th grade has use of a Chromebook during the school day. Specifically, the resolution would authorize the purchase of 1,940 additional Chromebooks and 174 LCD panels to supplement equipment already in place, district spokesman Larry Gibbs said.

Students will be able to use the computers during the school day starting second semester. There has been discussion at previous board meetings of allowing students to take them home in the future.

Adams said she expects the life of these Chromebooks to be about four years. The district will then replace the computers.

Original projections for the cost of this project were around $1 million. But Adams said Easy Graphics is giving the district discounts as well as several free items such as wall units for the LCD panels and wifi modules.

“This is a really good deal,” board President Renda Cline said.

The school district will receive the new shipment of computers prepped and ready for use on Feb. 11, Adams told the board. The LCD panels will arrive that day as well, but will not be installed until the summer following the school year.

A “very rough” estimate of the cost of instillation will be $60,000, said Stephen Rizzo, director of curriculum. The district is preparing to ask for bids for the installations.