Kansas school district can’t see much difference between Apple Macs and Windows PCs

Tuesday, April 17, 2007 - 04:10 PM EST

Apple Store"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.'"

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