Putnam County Schools completed the final payment on a major technology lease that provides MacBook Air laptops to every certified faculty and staff member across the district.
Technology Director Johnny Sloan said the district recently made a payment of more than $418,000 to conclude the four-year agreement. Sloan said the lease program, which began in 2008 with just 400 units, has expanded over the years to include 1,000 laptops in the current cycle.
“If we had to make that type of capital purchase at one time, it’s really a tough budget, to, it’s really hard to make that work in the budget,” Sloan said. “When we’re also looking at, you know, acquiring student devices and other technology equipment.”
Sloan said the per-unit cost of approximately $1,400 to $1,500 includes the computer, a protective case, video adapters, and four years of AppleCare coverage. Sloan said the comprehensive coverage allows for repairs of drops, screen damage, or mechanical issues at no additional cost to the teacher or the district.
“The cost of the lease is really, really minimal,” Sloan said. “It’s a very inexpensive addition you know above and beyond what the price of the device is.”
Sloan said the district has historically utilized a one-dollar buyout option at the end of its lease terms to acquire the equipment permanently. Sloan said these refurbished devices are then repurposed for student labs, carts, or other employees to extend their service life.
“We’ve gotten several more years in addition for those in the past that we that we did the dollar buyout we’ve been able to keep those and use them really for several more years after the lease ended,” Sloan said. “The lifespan of those, they’re supported, their operating system from Apple, they’re supported for you know several more years beyond of course the term of the lease and they just they really you know really hold up it’s a better-made better-built device.”
The current agreement offers a new financial alternative that allows the district to return the laptops for a guaranteed credit. Sloan said the contract includes a guaranteed buyback price depending on the condition of the hardware.
“We’ve not decided yet if we’re going to acquire the devices for the $1 buyout or if we will more or less return them back to Apple and get the $275 per device credit,” Sloan said. “So we have options, this gives us more options than we’ve ever had.”
Sloan said the district has also achieved a one-to-one student-to-device ratio using Chromebooks, though those devices typically remain on school campuses rather than going home with students. Sloan said the district utilizes federally required content filtering and network security to manage the fleet and prevent issues.
“It’s come a long way but it’s been a good good program we feel like it’s been an efficient way to to keep updated devices in our our faculty and staff’s hands so you know they can do the job that they need to do on a daily basis to help to help educate our students,” Sloan said.
The district will have until September 2027 to decide whether to execute the one-dollar buyout or return the current fleet of MacBooks for the guaranteed credit.
