The South Callaway School District Board discussed second year participation and costs for its iPad program at its regular meeting Wednesday.
Although repairs have gone up and more iPads were reported stolen or missing, the district only incurred a $41 loss during the program's second year, the district's Director of Technology Jeff Nelson said.
The school uses third-party insurance to assist students in covering the cost of repairs. When the program was first introduced the district provided a $5,000 starting pool that alleviated the cost of insurance for families, Nelson said. Students who check out an iPad and purchase the insurance must pay an initial cost of $40 for the individual device, however if a family has more children using the equipment the initial cost is limited to $80 for the family, Nelson said. If students wish to renew their iPad checkout for the following year, Nelson said, they'd be responsible for paying a $15 insurance renewal fee, for families it would be a $30 limit.
"We anticipate repairs will go up as equipment ages," Nelson said. "We're not trying to make money off the insurance, we're just trying to help those who participate."
iPad accessories are also provided to the students including a power supply, power cable, a case and carrying bag, but these items are not covered by the insurance and tend to have the highest numbers reported missing, Nelson said. Students who do not return accessories checked out to them are required to reimburse the district for the cost of the item. If a student later recovers the item and returns it, the district will reimburse the student or family with a check or apply it as a credit to the student's lunch account or other fees the student has incurred, Nelson said.
However, students who check out iPads aren't required to participate in the insurance program, but reimbursement for incurred damages or items reported stolen would be mandatory, Nelson said.
The program, which provides iPads only for students in grades three through 12, had 87 percent participation from students throughout the district- a total of 544 students participated, according to data presented at the meeting.
Help desks were set up in anticipation of the program for repairs and questions concerning utilization and software, Nelson said. The help desks had 336 ticket logs into the system for maintenance and repairs, according to the data. Of those 366, 133 of the iPads were sent off for additional repairs.
The majority of the iPads which were reported lost or missing, a total of 40, were recovered on the campus, however four were stolen or not returned in addition to two from the program's first year, according to the data. One of the iPads was recovered in Fulton after it was stolen from a vehicle, Nelson said, and another is suspected to be somewhere in Florida, but the district has no way of contacting that family, he added. Of the five that remained, two were covered by funds in the insurance pool, according to the data.
The insurance pool is not available to fund iPad repairs, instead, that money comes out of the district's maintenance budget, Nelson said. Since the program has another two years until its completion, the district is keeping a close watch on maintenance costs to see if the budget will need to be increased, Nelson said. If the budget is able to sustain the number of maintenance requests the district will start looking into the next phase of the program, he added.
"I think the program provides opportunities for students to be exposed to the technology and use it as a tool in the classroom," Nelson said.