Seaman USD 345 proposes purchase of 1,900 MacBook Airs; board weighs AppleCare, lease and trade‑in options

District technology staff told the Seaman USD 345 school board on Dec. 9 that the district is preparing a planned refresh of its secondary laptop fleet and is evaluating buy, lease and warranty options.

Jeff, the district technology staff member who presented the plan, said the proposal centers on purchasing 1,900 13‑inch MacBook Air M2 devices and adding AppleCare Plus. He said AppleCare Plus would cost about $378,000 over the four‑year lease and would provide two accidental‑damage incidents per device per year and full parts and labor coverage (excluding biohazards). By comparison, Jeff projected the district would spend roughly $440,000 on repairs over the next four years if it continued to repair devices in‑house at current rates and parts prices.

"96% of those repairs are broken screens," Jeff said when describing the district’s historical repair patterns, arguing this is a primary driver of repair cost. He said AppleCare would shift repairs to Apple’s managed service—district staff would ship devices out for repair rather than ordering parts and repairing in‑house—which would increase turnaround time slightly but reduce staff repair workload.

The presenter said the district is also pursuing trade‑in bids and has solicited proposals from vendors including a Kansas City firm, Synthetic Industries, which would asset‑tag new equipment, prepare devices for deployment and offer a minimum guaranteed return on traded devices. Jeff said the district expects to recover "a few hundred thousand dollars" from trade‑ins and that one bid could lower the district’s annual lease payment by passing trade‑in proceeds directly to Apple as part of the financing structure.

Staff said other details remain to be finalized: exact lease pricing, recovery values for outgoing machines, and an option to include Apple Professional Learning Academy seats (the presenter said adding a third seat would increase the contract by about $45,100). Jeff said he will deliver formal bids and final numbers to Superintendent Wilson and to the board before the next meeting.

Board members asked whether Apple would itemize repairs and how warranty costs might affect families. Jeff said Apple documents parts and repair fees and the district is discussing whether a lower family repair share could be achieved by adopting AppleCare rather than passing rising part costs through the current tiered family repair schedule (first incident 20%/second 50%/third 80%). He also described a spare‑device policy that would keep roughly 6% of the student population covered by loaner devices to account for shipping turnaround.

The board did not vote on the refresh during the Dec. 9 meeting; staff were asked to return with final bid documents, financing details and options for family cost sharing at a future meeting.