Personnel in the Technology Department of Vance County Schools are busy this summer preparing over 2,800 laptop computers for high school students and teachers to use during the 2014-2015 school year which begins on August 25.
Once the Technology personnel have completed work reloading operating systems on all of the laptop computers, they will turn their attention to installing over 1,000 new desk top computers in classrooms in the 10 local elementary schools and two middle schools.
Six technicians with the Technology Department are shown in the accompanying photo among the 877 new computers and 58 new flat-screen monitors that were purchased recently with federal funds through the school system’s Title I program.
The technicians are, from left, Garrett Wade, Celeste Wilkerson, Winston “Woody” Kerley Jr., Orlando Terry, Devon Richardson and Benji White.
They will continue over the next several weeks of the summer to complete the laptop upgrades and begin to install the new desk top computers in classrooms. The 877 new computers include units from Lenovo, made by IBM, and additional units from the Dell Corporation. Each computer also includes a new keyboard and mouse. An additional 160 computers were purchased with technology funds and will be used with the new Lenovo and Dell computers to replace every desk top computer in all elementary schools, plus Eaton-Johnson and Henderson middle schools. There also were another 350 new desk top computers purchased with technology funds to replace computers in school computer labs.
Marsha Abbott, director of the Technology Department, said the best of the computers being replaced in schools will be used to upgrade computers at Northern Vance High School to include Windows 7 Professional software applications. Abbott added that Technology personnel just completed replacing all computers in Career and Technical Education Program classrooms in the middle and high schools. This involved 250 to 300 computers.
Technology Department personnel always have a heavy workload in the summer as they must upgrade computers for use in classrooms throughout the school system, as well as prepare the laptops students will use at Early College, Western Vance, Northern Vance and Southern Vance high schools and the Early High School STEM Program, which for the new school year will include students in grades 6-8 and will be a full-fledged school on its own. Upgrades for the 2014-2015 school year include installing Windows 7 Professional software applications on all computers, including those in school system office areas.
“We’ll be busy well into the new school year as we install the new computers in the elementary and middle schools,” noted White. “Once we begin the installations, things should move quickly. We really only have to place the computers, turn them on and set them up for the individual users. We’re excited about getting these new computers into our classrooms.”
“We were able to leverage our purchasing power to get the 1,000-plus machines already imagined to save time in the replacement process,” Abbott added. “This will save a considerable amount of time when we begin the replacement process.”
As is required every school year, in addition to the new installations Technology Department technicians also must repair and maintain all desk top computers in the 17 public schools throughout the year, as well as maintain the almost 3,000 laptop computers used by students and teachers.