Sherman ISD trustees are scheduled to vote Monday, Oct. 19, on spending $347,754 to replace 300 district laptops that the technology department says are past their useful life.
The purchase is listed as item 9.10 on the board's consent agenda, a group of items the agenda says are approved in a single motion unless a trustee asks to discuss one separately. The administration recommends approval.
What would be replaced
According to the memo prepared for trustees, the machines being retired fall into three groups: HP ProBook x360 440 G1 machines between 7.5 and 8 years old, 6-year-old Dell Latitude 5310 2-in-1 units, and 5-year-old Dell Latitude 5420 laptops.
The memo says those computers have become more expensive to fix, fall short on current performance and security features, and in some cases are no longer supported by the manufacturer.
The replacements would be HP ProBook 4 G2i laptops with 14-inch touchscreens, Intel Core 5 processors, 16 GB of memory and spill-resistant keyboards. Each would come with four years of HP warranty coverage that also pays for accidental damage such as drops, spills and cracked screens.
Technology Services says buying one model for the whole district will make the devices easier to set up, support and repair.
How it would be paid for
The quote comes from SHI Government Solutions and works out to about $1,159 per laptop, warranty included. The district would buy through a TIPS cooperative contract, a purchasing program run by the Region 8 Education Service Center. The memo says a co-op purchase satisfies state competitive buying rules without the district running its own formal bid.
