The Bay City Public Schools Board of Education will purchase 500 Chromebooks for teachers in the city after approving a nearly $200,000 purchase, according to MLive.
The news agency reported the Chromebooks, which cost approximately $360 each, will cost $194,225 total. Chief Academic Officer Patrick Malley told the news agency that the district created a committee in October to figure out how to help shape the needs of teachers in the district.
“It really comes down to the fact that our teachers are currently mostly using their personal devices at home," Malley told MLive.
Malley said the Chromebooks would be used to attend virtual meetings or for other digital instruction needs, so that teachers would have a dedicated work device.
“If we’re asking our teachers to work from home, I’d like to provide them a machine that they can reasonably do their work on," Malley told MLive. "It’s with that in mind that I’m making that recommendation that we’re making that purchase."
Malley told MLive that when the committee was created in October, it was meant to be a simple process, but after COVID-19 shut down schools and sent teachers home, it became an expedited process. Malley said, as of the end of March, there were no cheaper products that would fit what the school district needed.
“This money, as well, is money that would come through our bond project as we’re moving forward,” Superintendent Stephen Bigelow told MLive. "While we’re spending the money right now as we move forward with the bond proposal, that money, if the bond is approved of course, that is money that we do not even put towards this purchase.”
Tom Baird, a school board member, was concerned about the purchase because he feels he was elected to watch over the taxpayers' money.
"When I pointed this out in my email to the entire board, nobody prior to me pointing it out had heard of the discussion to order 500 Chromebooks," Baird told MLive.
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