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Board weighs keeping district laptops at schools amid high loss and repair costs
Summary
Board members and staff discussed whether to keep the district's one‑to‑one laptops in school instead of sending them home, citing high loss and damage rates. IT reported tracking about 23,000 machines, roughly 1,800 unaccounted for since the program began, and repair and warranty arrangements with vendors.
Hernando County School Board members spent significant time debating whether the district should continue allowing students to take district-issued laptops home or keep devices at school.
Board members said teachers report students often bring devices uncharged or not at all, and some schools lack spare machines for classes when many students arrive without devices. Several board members suggested keeping laptops on campus for younger grades while allowing teacher discretion for older students. Mr. Pender said the district will convene a stakeholder group this week — including teachers, parents and operations staff — to gather recommendations.
Joe (district IT staff) told the board the district tracks roughly 23,000 machines and currently has about 1,800 machines missing from the start of the program through the present effort. He said devices are cloud‑profiled and personalized, which makes annual collection and reissuing impractical: "Every time a student logs into a machine, if it's not their account, it has to download the entirety of their profile again ... that is lengthy," he said.
Joe said the district negotiates repair and warranty services with vendors; damaged units are collected, repaired at a central depot and returned to the district under vendor warranty. He said tracking systems locate devices only when they are powered on, and active real‑time locators (like LoJack) would be cost‑prohibitive.
Board discussion also covered charging stations, extra classroom laptops, the cost to replace missing machines (about $650 per device), and policy options when devices are intentionally damaged. Joe said some schools invoice families for lost or damaged machines but collection rates are low.
Ending
The district will convene a working group to solicit teacher, parent and student input and will present recommendations to the board, including options on charging stations, spare devices and whether elementary devices should remain at school.
