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Henrico Restarts Laptop Bidding; Middle School Contract for Student Computers Could Wait Till January

Posted on: Sunday, 30 October 2005, 06:00 CST

By Olympia Meola

It's back to the drawing board for Henrico County's School Board, which voted last night to request proposals for a computer vendor to supply laptops to the county's middle schools.

By doing so, the board abandoned a deal that Dell Inc. had on the table to equip middle schools for a lower per-unit cost than the high schools, which the company also supplies. Dell made that pitch as part of its high school proposal. The special offer expires Tuesday.

Superintendent Fred Morton IV said this spring that the school system would use a similar approach to the middle school contract as it did with the high schools. He gathered input from teachers and administrators before issuing a request for proposals.

Dell and Apple Computers Inc. have both been good partners, he said, and this action speaks to any misconceptions that the middle school contract was a done deal.

"It's going to be an open process," he said. "We really do care about teacher involvement."

Further, a new request will provide the opportunity to reflect specific needs of the middle schools.

"It gives us a chance to structure a process that really projects the needs of middle school students, which are different than high school students -- maybe significantly so," said School Board member Jim Fiorelli.

Morton said he hopes to have a decision by the end of January to give school staff adequate prep time before the new school year.

Middle school students and teachers use school-issued Apple iBooks, but a contract for the majority of the machines expires in June.

High school teachers and students also used iBooks before Dell defeated Apple this year with a four-year, $17.9 million contract to continue the program. At the same time, Dell made an offer of about 14,000 laptops for the middle schools at $20 less, or $1,111 per unit.

In a work session this month, the board weighed pros and cons of taking Dell's offer. On one hand, high school students just began using Dell laptops this school year and some board members think too little time has passed to make a decision about using them in the middle schools.

But the board doesn't know what offers will come this time, or if any will meet Dell's deal.

There were no Dell representatives at the meeting, and a company spokesman did not return telephone messages seeking comment late last night.

Source: Richmond Times - Dispatch

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