GREENSBORO — Guilford County Schools will get almost $4.8 million in tablet computers, services and reimbursements as part of a tentative agreement with vendor Amplify.
On Wednesday, Superintendent Maurice “Mo” Green announced the agreement, which extends the school system’s contract with Amplify for an extra year at no additional cost. It also resolves many of the concerns that led officials to pull the devices from schools and return them to Amplify last fall.
Amplify must meet certain provisions by March 17 for the contract to be finalized.
Under the plan, Amplify will send new devices to be used at all 24 Guilford middle schools this fall — more than the 15,000 tablets Guilford initially leased for 18 middle schools last year. Green said the tablets and related services are worth more than $3.9 million.
People are also reading…
The new devices will be built by a new manufacturer. Taiwan-based Asus built the old devices.
Amplify also will pay Guilford County Schools about $856,750 for the training and personnel costs tied to the now suspended program.
Last year, Guilford leased Amplify tablets for $3.2 million. The devices, paid for with part of a $30 million federal Race to the Top grant, were meant to be part of a broader effort to personalize learning.
But problems with the tablets arose, including broken screens, Internet connection issues and damaged chargers. Schools also discovered software glitches, faulty applications and poor quality accessories.
Before Green halted the use of the tablets Oct. 4, officials learned that the wrong glass was in the tablets and that a student’s charger had partly melted.
Guilford County Schools will continue to work with Amplify because of the company’s response to concerns about the devices, Green said.
After suspending the program, Green said, he and his staff reflected on why they chose Amplify and their vision for the overall initiative.
He said they asked, “If we’re going to be in a very unfortunate and difficult situation, are we going to be in it with a company that’s going to be responsive to our concerns?”
Amplify executives responded to concerns about the device quality and “continuing the program in a way that made sense to GCS,” Green said.
It’s still not clear what caused the charger damage. Asus has reported that an external evaluator found no indication of a manufacturing defect.
Green said school system officials still had concerns about the quality and safety of the Asus devices and chargers.
Amplify will announce next month which company will make its next tablet.
Amplify’s other customers continue to use the Asus tablets, spokesman Justin Hamilton said.
Guilford will launch a small-scale pilot program for the new tablets this spring. It didn’t do that last year.
There will be a staggered distribution of 19,240 devices this fall. Last year, schools received the devices about the same time.
The terms of the agreement suggest that school system officials hope not to repeat past mistakes. This time, the agreement specifies that the tablet screens should be made out of a tougher glass and that the chargers should meet certain safety standards.
The agreement also includes penalties if certain deadlines aren’t met. For example, Amplify would have to reduce the price for each day the tablets are not delivered on time. If Amplify does not deliver the tablet cases on time, the company would have to replace any damaged devices.
Currently, middle school teachers are learning ways to personalize instruction. Before, they were learning those approaches while also learning how to use the devices, said Jake Henry, who oversees the tablet initiative.
“One of the unintended consequences is that we’re further ahead in our understanding of personalized learning, and we’re ready for the tablets to come back to support that,” Henry said.
Contact Marquita Brown at (336) 373-7002, and follow @mbrownk12 on Twitter.
