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Georgia District Outsources Device Repair To Improve Turnaround

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 10/09/14

Georgia's Rockdale County Public Schools has entered into a contract for tablet, laptop and desktop repairs in an effort to reduce costs and improve turnaround times.

After a four-month bidding process, Rockdale County Schools chose to contract with Lexicon Technologies, which already repairs printers for the district, in an agreement "projected to save the school system more than $1 million on repair coverage cost for new tablets alone, compared to competitor pricing," according to a news release.

While a student's device is being repaired, Lexicon will provide him or her with a replacement device to eliminate the cost of backup devices and reduce the time a student goes without.

"Classroom instruction simply cannot be disrupted by technology failure. We are committed to having a replacement tablet in a student's hands within 24 hours of it breaking," said Dave Wiedman, Lexicon president, in a prepared statement.

The three-year contract will go into effect November 1.

The district, which serves approximately 16,000 students with 11 elementary, four middle and three high schools, recently launched a one-to-one computing initiative. Since May the district has gained approval from its board of education to purchase nearly 2,000 Dell desktops, spend $75,000 beefing up its network infrastructure and firewall and to purchase tablets for students in select grades in two schools at a cost of nearly $700,000. Completion of the one-to-one program is scheduled for 2017.

More information about Rockdale County Public Schools is available at the district's site.