Back to School Coverage: 30,000 E.P.I.S.D. students issued laptops

Last year, the El Paso Independent School District handed out 20,000 laptops
to students.

This year, thousands of incoming freshmen are also set to pick up their new hardware.

For the district, keeping the close to 30,000 laptops maintained can be quite the task.

“We’ve had a very good repair history with them. The students have protected them well,” said EPISD chief technology officer Steve Stiles.

Stiles told ABC-7 that students have done a pretty good job of taking care of the laptops that were issued to them at the beginning of last year. There are some exceptions.

“I’ve seen some literally in pieces with tire marks across them,” Stiles said.

One of the most common problems: “Broken screens,” Stiles said.

Each Hewlett-Packard laptop costs around $240. The district gets them at a discount for about $183.

“We are looking for four years out of these laptops,” Stiles told ABC-7.

There’s also a team of information technology employees keeping the laptops in good shape.

“We have one deployed at each of the high schools,” Stiles said.

Those employees also keep all of the school’s technology running, as well.

“There’s a cadre of students, of computer science students, who can also repair as well (if they get backed up),” Stiles said.

Stiles said the laptops have tracking devices and filters to keep the students
from visiting unwanted sites on or off campus.

“We have an agent in the laptops that will, on a daily basis, pick up the filters of our network and apply them anywhere the student is worldwide,” Stiles said.

After students graduate, they are also given the option to purchase the laptops at a discounted price.