Abington SD approves printer consolidation and Chromebook, switch purchases amid sharp price increases

The Abington Board of School Directors on March 24 approved a district request to advertise an RFP to consolidate printers at elementary schools and approved contract awards for Chromebooks and network switches.

IT staff (Mister Kargas) said the consolidation would retire about 65 legacy devices across elementary schools and replace them with roughly 23 multifunction printers to reduce per-unit toner and maintenance costs. He said the district will investigate options to recoup value from retired units and otherwise recycle them.

On contract awards, administration requested approval not to exceed $1,000,000 to purchase roughly 2,000 Chromebooks for third, sixth and ninth grades. The district reported steep price increases: staff said the same unit purchased last year cost about $650,000 for 1,555 units, and that vendor quotes reflected increases (one statement described a 48% increase compared with last year; another pointed to per-unit pricing of $2.95 last year versus about $3.76 now, a 28% increase depending on vendor/units). The district said it will obtain multiple quotes and hold vendors to state-contract pricing where applicable.

Network switches were presented with a total cost of $306,000; administrators said the district expects approximately a 50% rebate through the federal E-rate program (category 2) and that many switches will be applied to the middle-school building. Staff also said the high demand for hardware means some switched equipment may not arrive until January 2027.

Board members approved both the advertisement for printer consolidation and the contract awards for Chromebooks and switches by roll call.