An increased cost to lease Dell Chromebooks has Lehighton Area School District looking to purchase the machines with part of its Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund allocation.

During a district finance committee meeting Monday night, Business Administrator Edward Rarick said the district had originally planned to purchase 650 Chromebooks in 2021-22 for a total of $231,660, which would have come out of ESSER II funds. That cost includes the accompanying yearly licensing, a protective case and three-year damage coverage. Lehighton budgeted a total of $322,000 for Chromebooks, licenses, covers, and Insurance.

The remaining 450 Chromebooks needed for the district’s one-to-one technology initiative were originally to be leased through the Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit as they were for the school year that just ended. This year, however, those Chromebooks were leased for $150 per year and that cost is jumping to $540 per year in 2021-22.

“Given that increase, our alternative at this point is to add them into a purchase using ESSER III funds,” Rarick said. “We can purchase those Chromebooks outright, saving the district $285 a unit for a total of $128,000 in year one. It’s a potential savings of $384,000 over three years by purchasing them versus leasing them.”

District officials said they weren’t expecting such a big jump in the cost for a lease.

“It doesn’t sound as though the IU wants to be in the Chromebook leasing business anymore,” director Nathan Foeller said. “I think that makes purchasing versus leasing a no-brainer.”

The ESSER funds, which were approved through the federal CARES Act in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, are slated to arrive sporadically in the district through 2023-24. Earlier this year, Rarick said $300,000 is arriving in 2020-21, with $2.7 million coming in 2021-22, $2.9 million in 2022-23 and $700,000 in 2023-24. The money does come with certain restrictions on how it can be spent, but technology initiatives are high on that list.

“I’m in support of this because this is exactly what the ESSER funding was designed to do,” LASD treasurer Rita Spinelli said during the finance meeting.

Several different Chromebook models were tested in the district, Rarick said, with one being chosen as a favorite due to its dual charging ports, one on each side of the machine.

“It’s a great investment because a lot of the work students are doing these days is on the Chromebook and the computers we have in the classrooms,” Rarick said. “This will put us in a great position for years to come. By owning them instead of leasing them, we would have them for five years or more. A lot of the ones we are currently carrying, we have had for well over that.”