mLISD laptop roll out to freshmen, Jan. 19-20

As the date for the mLISD rollout approaches, all freshmen must pay the semester maintenance fee of $35. If the maintenance fee is not turned in by next Tuesday, Jan. 19 and Wednesday, Jan. 20 then the students who haven’t paid won’t receive their Lenovo ThinkPad laptop.

“I am hoping most students have waited until the last minute because that tends to be a trend for a lot of deadlines,” assistant principal Tina Pasak said. “What some of the freshmen don’t realize is that the Lenovo mobile carts that they are so used to using in their classes, they’ll soon be disappearing and the expectation is for students to come with their own technology.”

As of Jan. 11, only 230 students of 610 freshmen had paid, 80 of those are bringing their own devices. That means only 51 percent of the freshmen will have a laptop come the roll out date. Freshman that bring their own devices don’t have to pay the maintenance fee however, they won’t be able to print at school. They’ll also have to pay for their own programs, such as Microsoft or Adobe suite if it’s not already installed on their device and there will be little to no tech support.

“I think that you’d benefit from using the school’s device because you’d have access to our techsperts,” Pasak said. “If you have any issues you’ll have immediate service and immediate replacement Lenovo device so that you’re not sitting here trying to troubleshoot yourself or take your technology to wherever it’s serviced and that lag time in getting it replaced. You have immediate help.”

Students who receive a Lenovo have the benefits of acquiring a neoprene sleeve, a power cord, all necessary software such as the Adobe and Microsoft suite, and tech support. For free/reduced students the maintenance fee is $17.50. Scholarships are also available.

The school is hosting one last mLISD information meeting where parents can ask question or voice concerns and pay the fee, Thursday, Jan. 14 at Wiley Middle School in the library, 6:30-8 p.m.