“Voting on a new technology lease will highlight Wednesday’s regular meeting of Hays USD 489 Board of Education,” Diane Gasper-O’Brien reports for The Hays Daily News [Hays, Kansas]. “The meeting is set for 7 p.m.”
“Mary Woods and Loren VonLintel, technology directors for the district, will give a recommendation to the board for a proposal for the next technology lease for the district,” Gasper-O’Brien reports. “They plan to have their recommendation ready for Superintendent Fred Kaufman today. Kaufman and the three assistant superintendents are to meet and go over the summaries, then reconvene with Woods and VonLintel to finalize the recommendation for the board. The Hays district, which leases 1,800 computers yearly, including 1,450 laptops — 1,100 at Hays High School alone — is its final year of a three-year lease with Apple Inc.”
Gasper-O’Brien reports, “There has been speculation the district might go with the PC platform rather than Apple this time around.”
“VonLintel said the finance proposal deadline was pushed back to just a couple of weeks ago in order to get the most up-to-date interest rates. ‘There are a lot of things that will weigh into this (decision),’ Woods said. ‘Such as durability, total cost of ownership, financing, advantages of staying with a known entity,’ she added, naming a few,” Gasper-O’Brien reports. “A long project is nearing an end for Woods and VonLintel, who have been gathering information for nearly two years.”
“Part of their research involved consulting administrators in Henrico County, Va., the same school district they visited when Hays first went to the one-to-one laptop initiative at Hays High in 2004,” Gasper-O’Brien reports.
Gasper-O’Brien reports, “Henrico County had started its laptop initiative with Apple, then went with Dell for the high school when that lease was up but decided to stay with Apple for the middle-school students. ‘They are equally satisfied with both,’ Woods said.”
Gasper-O’Brien reports, “VonLintel said he thinks that Hays could be, too. ‘I have the utmost confidence in our staff that we can use any of them to teach in either (platform),’ VonLintel said. ‘I use both the same, and I don’t even notice much difference when I go from a Mac to a PC.’ Woods agreed. ‘I really have no preference,’ Woods said. ‘I’ve been happy with Apple. I’m very confident we would do just as well with Dell. We feel we can’t go wrong with either one.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You’ve got to be some special “technology director” if you don’t understand the difference between Macs and Windows PCs. Security. Total Cost of Ownership. Cost of Anti-Virus software (dollars and processor cycles). Ease of Use. iLife. Unlimited OS capability. Ability to run the largest selection of software. The list goes on and on – every item is in Apple Mac’s favor; often glaringly so. The only type of hardware that school systems should be considering today are Apple’s OS-unlimited Macs. If any school system is considering spending money on OS-limited PCs from HP, Dell, Gateway, or any other PC box assembler, taxpayers should complain loudly because their money would be slated to be wasted foolishly. Only Apple Macs can run the world’s most advanced operating system and, if need be, Linux variants and Microsoft’s porous Windows.
More info: http://macvspc.info/
Contact info:
• Board of Education, USD 489 Board Members, boe@hays489.k12.ks.us
• Fred Kaufman, USD 489 Superintendent, fkaufman@hays489.k12.ks.us
• Mary Woods, Technology Specialist, mwoods@hays489.k12.ks.us
• Loren VonLintel, Technology Specialist, lvonlintel@hays489.k12.ks.us
Related articles:
After dropping Macs, Henrico officials work to protect students’ new Dells from viruses – August 29, 2005
Kansas City schools plan calls for 6,000 Apple Macs – April 12, 2007
Chicago area school district tech director wants to phase out Macs for ‘more appropriate technology’ – December 18, 2006
Harvard Medical School CIO picks Mac OS X over Linux and Windows – November 30, 2006
4,800 students in Microsoft’s backyard receive Apple Mac notebooks – September 10, 2006
Michigan middle school students get 350 Apple iBooks – August 30, 2006
Nebraska high school provides nearly 200 Apple iBooks to all students – August 28, 2006
The Seattle Times: Apple Macbook is best computer for school – August 26, 2006
BusinessWeek’s Stephen Wildstrom recommends students pick Mac over Windows for first time – June 15, 2006
State of Maine awards middle school contract to Apple Computer for 34,000 iBooks – March 21, 2006
Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Ireland to roll out Apple Mac solutions in 3,500 primary schools – March 17, 2006
Apple beats Dell: lands deal to supply 12,675 iBooks to Henrico County Middle Schools – February 09, 2006
Group questions wisdom of dumping Macs in favor of HP Windows PCs in Boulder, CO schools – February 06, 2006
Students and teachers: going Mac could save you money on software – August 23, 2005
The Seattle Times: Apple iBook ‘a great laptop for students’ (with no viruses or spyware) – August 22, 2005
Chatham County (NC) rolls out 1,000 of eventual 7,400 Apple iBooks for students and teachers – August 17, 2005
Let them go the same route as the idiots in Henrico County. In 2 or 3 years they’ll come crawling back…
The challenge of education… even supposedly “smart” people just don’t get it.
It sounds to me like these guys want to be sure they get the best deal – they are saying to Apple and Dell “there is nothing to choose between your products – it will come down to price.”
I wonder if they have asked the students?
unbelievable.
oh wait, it’s kansas.
Hey macdailynews, really? what do you want trying to all the world use mac????
Iam sick of your kind of news… LIKE:
SWITCHERS ARE HAPPY! THEY CAN DEAD NOW HAPPY!!!!!!! BEACUSE THEY USE MAC!!!!!!
BILL GATES USE MAC!!!!!!
ALL THE SCHOOLS OF THE COUNTRY BUY 10 MACS BY DAY!
BUSH WANT THAT COUNTRY USE JUST MAC!!!
BULLSHIT…
Keep mac like always has know, some perfect and exclusive, we dont want that all the fscking planet use mac!!!!!! more people use mac !!!!!! more shit coming!!!! Let that rest of the planet use the shit of Vista and wherever… the design and art people and people that think diferent use mac… ok?????
This is exactly the type of mind sets that made me stop working with schools/government.
There is a reason these people are not working in the corporate world.
They couldn’t make the cut, so lower your expectations and work in the government.
It’s so sad.
Another brilliant example of how the education system is failing the children of America.
From a school district’s point of view, there is very little difference. A Mac is a computer. A PC is a computer. Some people are religous about the Mac, but bottom line, it’s just a computer.
So when you need one thousand eight hundred computers, it isn’t about which is better, it’s about which looks cheaper on the bottom line.
Apple has to step up and sweeten the deal with software and services. If they’ve already done so that have to do it again.
If I were the head of technology, in the same situation, I’d do the same thing. I’d tell both vendors, I don’t see much difference in your product and theirs. It will cause both to go back find present better deals.
This is not paltform politics. This is bottom line accounting, pure and simple.
Steve, wtf did you say?
Hahaha… I read that article and thought “wow, those people have it coming… someond should yell at them and tell them the truth.”
However, now that I see that MDN pasted their e-mails online, I feel sorry for them! They are going to get so bombarded with e-mails it isn’t even funny!
Hahahah, nevermind… it is hilarious!
Steve (above) is obviously a product of Hays, KS public schools.
<b>Hayseeds and bumpkins.</a> That is what they will be if they blow this for their students and teachers and don’t choose Macs.
Look to the “Big City,” hicks, and see what they’ve done:
Kansas City schools plan calls for 6,000 Apple Macs – April 12, 2007
Just follow their lead, they seem to know a hell of a lot more than you rubes.
Don’t go sending these people e-mails. You’ll just piss them off and probably push the deal toward Windows.
There is nothing anyone reading this website can tell them they don’t already know. They already know there are security problems with Windows that don’t exist on the Mac. They already know that OS X is a great OS and is typically judged to be better than Windows.
This is not the basis for their decision.
Their decision is based on the fact that they have X dollars for this deal and if they can do it for X-y where y = real and perceived cost savings, they will do so because the dealta can be applied to other areas where the school district needs money.
Keep your religion to yourself. Stay away from the e-mail send button. Stop making Mac users look like idiots.
wow, STEVE,
single best butchering of the english language of all time.
next to “All your base are belong to us.”
Just two thoughts come to mind from this post:
1) I wonder what the kids and overall teaching staff think?
2) I’ve advoacted for and gotten dual platform environments in the past. Its great to be able to offer the end user what they think they want and are going to be comfortable with.
It didn’t take long for the anti-rural bigotry to show up, did it? And you call yourself an evolved, enlightened person, no doubt. It just shows how far we haven’t come.
And the next voice of sanity chimes in with the assumption that emailing the KS decision-makers is the province of the unhinged, the idiotic, and the fanatic. Overgeneralize much?
I’ll never stop being amazed that the muddleheaded post on a site which regularly lampoons muddleheaded thinking.
Dude… Steve…
Take your Ritalin and STFU!
Here is someone without a clue about computers. What does this guy use the computer for to play solitare.
There’s a big difference between a Dell and a Mac. The Dell gets viruses and spyware and a Mac doesn’t would be just one difference and many more.
“I’ll never stop being amazed that the muddleheaded post on a site which regularly lampoons muddleheaded thinking.”
Err, yeah. Wait, what does that even mean?
Can someone please interpret what steve said????
It makes my head hurt to understand him.
With all due respect to the MDN take, to run ALL the software possible on the Mac the school district would need to purchase separate Windows OS licenses (virtually free with Dell purchases) to allow Bootcamp or Parallels use on the Mac. This would make the Mac route easily more expensive to the district. I suspect that all the software school students need is available as native Mac software, so I don’t think the addition of Window is necessary. I just don’t think the MDN arguement of “Unlimited OS capability. Ability to run the largest selection of software.” is pertenant to their decision making. Stick with TCO and security issues.
We finally have a school technology expert that knows what he is talking about. Why waste a mountain of money on over-priced hardware when you can run more applications on the industry standard Windows PC. It is well known that there is almost no software for the macintosh (look at their pathetic stores to see the lack of software). No company or school should seriously look to purchase macintosh computers as they are just in fancy boxes. There is a reason businesses purchase computers from HP, IBM (now Lenovo) or Dell, and that is because they produce a top notch product for a low price and have excellent technical support to back you up.
I’ve talked to several so called “Genius” at Apple stores and found them to be the most ill-informed and stupid people on the planet. I am amazed that they don’t electricute themselves turning off their alarm clock every morning. Now is the time for everyone to wake up to the fact that Apple produces a very expensive piece of crap that is overpriced. If you want your moneys worth then purchase a PC with Windows installed. You are guaranteed that every application you should ever need runs on it.
Try finding descent business plan software – nothing exists. The list goes on for miles. Save your money and time and buy a real computer with a real Microsoft operating system installed and ready to go.
Or you could just light your money on fire and make Steve Jobs even richer for making a slick looking computer that is not up to par with anyone else but is way over priced.
Macintosh users are just suckers that don’t understand technology.
neven… it means that you should learn to comprehend sentences which contain more than 3 words
iLife? Big whoop.
Hunk of Junk.
Give them OpenOffice, get rid of garageband and scale down iPhoto, they should be working, not playing.
…Microsoft’s porous Windows.
Hilarious!!
“I’ve talked to several so called “Genius” at Apple stores and found them to be the most ill-informed and stupid people on the planet. I am amazed that they don’t electricute themselves turning off their alarm clock every morning…..
…Try finding descent business plan software – nothing exists.”
Anyone else see the irony in this?
Descent… i loved that game.