At its April 3 meeting, the Baltimore County Board of Education approved the contract to lease and refresh 133,000 new HP devices for students, teachers, and staff. The BOE was supposed to have voted on the contract at its March 20 meeting, which was canceled due to inclement weather.
In spite of warnings posted here about overspending
and published here about efficacy and opportunity costs,
the contract was approved, which means BCPS is locked in to another 7 years of S.T.A.T. The fact that a major vote was taken knowing that the person who brought the program to BCPS, Dr. Dallas Dance, will soon serve jail time, and that, based on this, legislators have agreed that an audit of ed-tech-related contracts is warranted, makes it all the more unbelievable that this took place.
March 6 BOE Meeting Device Q&A
JMI-604-18 HARDWARE, SOFTWARE AND SERVICES TO PROVIDE A ONE-TO- ONE DEVICE PROGRAM FOR STUDENTS AND STAFF
- $140,000,000
- 133,000 devices rolled out over 4 years for 7-year total contract (14″ HP Elitebook X360 1030 G2 for teachers and staff members, $1,549; 11″ HP ProBook X360 11 G2 EE for students, $906)
Original Contract (MWE-807-14): 7 years (through 6/30/21) with 13-year extension, estimated contract authority: $205,000,000 = $29,285,714/year
STAT-us BCPS 