Portland schools worry laptops could have hidden costs

By TESS NACELEWICZ, Portland Press Herald Writer

Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

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Portland schools are delighted to be part of Gov. Angus King's new laptop computer giveaway - but say it could entail significant costs for local taxpayers.

King's plan calls for providing free Apple iBooks to every seventh- and eighth-grader in Maine.

But Portland school officials say that fully integrating the laptops into the Portland schools' existing computer network - which uses a different operating system than Apple - and paying for special equipment and insurance could cost as much as $350,000 over the next few years.

However, the Maine Department of Education says that its $37.2 million contract with Apple is so comprehensive, providing so many services, that the costs to school districts for the laptops will be minimal. In most cases, schools need only spend a few hundred dollars for wiring to get the laptops up and working, said department spokesman Yellow Light Breen.

He said large expenditures like those Portland is anticipating would be a choice, not a necessity. For example, although the computers are only partially insured under the contract - their $800 screens are not insured - the state will have a "buffer pool" of more than 900 spare laptops to serve as replacements.

"The purchase of the optional insurance of $50 per unit offered by Apple is just that - optional," Breen said.

He said the department plans to send a letter to Maine's school superintendents this week to "clarify local costs versus optional elements."

Breen also said that whatever school districts spend should be contrasted with what they gain: new laptops and computer services worth $1,500 to $2,000 per student.

"To put it in context," Breen said, "I would estimate the total value of the equipment and services which Portland will get for free over the next four years will be about $2 million. That's a pretty significant boost to the district for technology."

The debate over optional and necessary costs is going on as lawmakers in Augusta grapple with whether the state can afford King's laptop plan. Although the Legislature last year approved the initiative and set aside $30 million for it, some legislators this year want to divert much of that to other programs to balance the state budget.

In the meantime, the initiative is already being adopted in nine demonstration schools across the state, where a total of 675 laptops went to seventh-grade students and their teachers earlier this month.

King's plan then calls for the state to provide about 18,000 computers to the state's remaining seventh-graders and their teachers in August. The following year, the state's eighth-graders and their teachers would get about 17,000 more computers. The students won't own the computers but can use them all day at school and, in some cases, at home.

Lyman Moore Middle School in Portland is one of those demonstration schools and received 98 laptops March 8.

"I don't think I can overemphasize how happy we are to be getting these laptops," said Randy Stewart, business manager of the Portland schools.

However, he said, "I feel obligated to let the superintendent and School Committee and the taxpayers" know that the laptop initiative might hold significant costs for Portland.

Stewart agrees with Breen that the costs aren't absolutely necessary. He said Portland could make do with spending about $3,000 at each of Portland's three middle schools for wiring and installing routers to connect the laptops to the Internet. But to improve such items as insurance and the charging, wireless and switching devices would cost about $350,000 for all seventh- and eighth-graders, Stewart said.

That price would also include new software. Stewart said that without that, students with laptops would operate in a kind of "oasis," not able to easily transmit their files to the schools' existing PC network, which uses Microsoft Office software for personal computers instead of Apple products.

Breen disagrees, saying the files in the different systems "will readily translate and be readable."

Two other demonstration schools - Shapleigh Middle School in Kittery and Boothbay Region Elementary School in Boothbay Harbor - already have an Apple network and expect their local costs to be low.

Greg Goodness, principal of Shapleigh, said the school's only costs were about $500 for materials for cabinets that he and teachers and students made themselves.

At Boothbay, Principal Eileen King said her school also is looking for innovative ways to keep costs down.

For example, the school is serving as a demonstration school for charging carts from three companies and so didn't have to pay $6,000 to buy them this year. The school might ask parents to pay the $50 screen insurance, she said.

"Yes," Eileen King said, "there are expenses attached to this, but the impact on teaching and learning is so significant, it makes those costs worthwhile."

Staff Writer Tess Nacelewicz can be contacted at 791- 6367or at: tnacelewicz@pressherald.com

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