Midwest City-Del City board approves purchase of 6,200 MacBook Neo laptops for secondary students

At a May 4 special meeting, the Midwest City-Del City Board of Education voted unanimously to approve the purchase of 6,200 MacBook Neo laptops to maintain a 1:1 device program for secondary students.

Dr. Cobb presented the request and said the purchase will move existing high-school iPads down to elementary grades and fill a previous gap so the device program covers sixth through 12th grades. "This covers 6th through 12th grade," Dr. Cobb said, explaining the change responds to student feedback about the difficulty of typing on older iPad keyboards.

Dr. Cobb described procurement and lifecycle details: the district plans to buy through Apple and its education channels to secure discounted pricing and add AppleCare for damage assessment and repair; staff also described a device buyback process that helps sustain replacements over a multi-year cycle. The presentation said buyback guarantees and AppleCare practices include returning devices once battery health drops below an 80 percent threshold and that a four-year lifecycle is used for budgeting.

Board members asked whether cases would be provided. Staff said cases add roughly $20–$25 per device and that the district currently does not have the budget to supply them universally; families may be given recommended accessory options to purchase. The presentation also noted previously requested iPad funds remain available because the district paused that purchase when the MacBook Neo became available.

Trustees approved the motion by roll-call, with the board recording unanimous affirmative votes from members present. The board moved on to other agenda items after the vote.

Next steps: procurement and vendor contract finalization per standard purchasing processes before delivery and device deployment to schools.