Superintendent Dr. Evelyn Mamman told the Board of Education that some parents could not get a loaner when a child’s laptop broke. The fee for the district’s device coverage plan has more than doubled in two years.
When a student’s district laptop breaks, only the district may repair it, and the district’s coverage plan lists loaner devices among what it provides. Superintendent Dr. Evelyn Mamman told the Board of Education on Oct. 8 that a loaner has not always been available.
Mamman said parents had called because their children’s laptops were broken, no loaners were available and students were scrambling.
At the same time, the cost of the district’s optional device coverage has risen each year. Under coverage plans approved by the Board, the annual fee per student was $35 for the 2024-25 school year, $50 for 2025-26 and $75 for this year. In approving the latest increase in June, the Board cited “the level of claims incurred and rising costs of devices and parts.”
Mamman said the underlying problem is aging, low cost laptops and years of reduced replacement funding. The district has ordered more laptops to use as loaners, officials said, but gave no number or delivery date.
What parents have reported
Mamman’s account came in answer to a community question about whether the district keeps enough replacement and loaner laptops and how it makes sure students have working devices. She did not say how many families had called, when, or how long students went without a device. Officials did not say how many loaners are available today.
She did offer one number. As older laptops stopped working well, she said, “we had 400 loaners that became lifetime loaners and never came back.” Moments later she said, “We currently have 400 loaner devices.” Officials did not say whether 400 is the district’s entire loaner supply or the number now with students.
Business Administrator Joseph Crotchfelt said that, rather than buying new loaners, the district has for some time used the best of the laptops returned to it as loaners, “to try to help offset some of our budget difficulties.”
What the coverage plan provides
Every student is issued a district device: Chromebooks in kindergarten through sixth grade and Windows laptops from seventh grade on. Coverage is optional and covers one device for the school year.
The plan approved in June lists “loaner devices” among the things coverage applies to, along with screens, hinges, keyboards, batteries, chargers, liquid damage that can be repaired, and “electrical or mechanical breakdown.” It does not say how quickly a student will receive a loaner, or what happens if none is available. Lost devices are not covered; a stolen device is covered once, with a police report.
If a covered laptop cannot be repaired, the family pays a $50 deductible. This year’s plan adds a limit of one replacement a year; any further replacement is charged at the full rate.
Families without coverage pay the district’s listed charges, which include $335 to replace a laptop without a stylus, $530 with a stylus, and $228 for a cracked laptop screen. Those are the charges families pay for repairs and replacements, not the price the district pays to buy laptops.
The plan also says families “shall not be responsible for ordinary wear and tear, manufacturer defects, battery degradation due to normal use, or failures determined by the District that result from normal educational use.” That language did not appear in last year’s plan.
Another change affects lower income families. The 2024-25 and 2025-26 plans said families qualifying for free or reduced price meals “are automatically covered at no cost.” This year’s plan says they “are eligible for a discounted fee.” It does not state the amount.
The district’s Information Technology Department decides whether a device is repaired or replaced, and families may not have a district device repaired elsewhere. Parents can dispute a damage charge by replying to the district’s email ticket within five business days. Enrollment for this school year ended Sept. 18; families of new students decide at registration.
Why the laptops are failing, according to the superintendent
“The district has not fully funded our one to one program in years,” Mamman said.
She said the district buys “laptops that are not state of the art. They are literally cheap.” Older models had four gigabytes of memory; those bought for this year’s seventh graders have eight. Students keep the laptop they receive in seventh grade through 12th grade, she noted. “Having a device that is five to seven years old in this day and age is just not sustainable.”
Mamman said the problems are not caused by the district’s Wi-Fi or network. She also cited a Microsoft update in May that she said disrupted casting to classroom screens, and the demands of newer software. These are her explanations; no technical assessment was presented at the meeting.
Asked how long the district’s laptops are expected to last, someone on the dais answered, “three years.”
Less replacement money
Crotchfelt said the district’s annual budget for device replacement was $700,000 “several years ago” and is now $500,000, after cuts of about $100,000 a year two and three years ago. “We didn’t make any reductions in this current year,” he said. “As costs are going up on the laptops, our funding’s going down to replace.”
Mamman said the district is “doing like $300” per laptop. Board records show the district paid about $335 each for the 700 laptops bought in June for incoming seventh graders, and about $330 each in each of the two previous years. Those are the district’s purchase prices, not the repair and replacement charges families pay under the coverage plan.
The district’s response
Officials said the district has placed an order for more laptops to use as loaners, paid for through “the enterprise fund” for “device coverage.” That is where the Board’s coverage plans say the program’s fees are kept, in an account intended “to strictly cover costs incurred.” “We’re trying to change our philosophy so we can address some of these issues creatively,” officials said. No quantity, cost or delivery date was given.
Mamman said the district is working on a replacement strategy that looks “three years, four years down the road.” She said she would like students entering 10th grade to get a new laptop rather than keep the one issued in seventh grade, and that the district is “trying to work that out given the budget constraints.” No plan, cost or timeline was presented, and the Board has not voted on one.
What families still don’t know
The district did not say how many loaners are available now, how many are on order or when they will arrive. It did not describe what a student should do, or what the school will provide, when a laptop fails and no loaner is available. It did not say how long repairs typically take, what the discounted coverage fee is for families qualifying for free or reduced price meals, or when a longer term replacement plan might come before the Board.
“I wish I had a better response,” Mamman said. “But that’s the issue.”
