Pine-Richland approves purchase of new computers, auditorium updates

Some Pine-Richland School District students and teachers will have new computers when they return to classes in the fall.

The school board at its June 23 meeting approved spending about $561,200 to buy Chromebooks for students, laptops for teachers and classroom computers from Bluum and MacBooks from Apple. Money for the purchase was included in the district’s 2025-26 budget.

The 1,080 Chromebooks, costing about $377,800, will replace devices that are more than five years old for sixth and seventh graders and high school business computer science students.

The district saved about $100,000 by buying them for less than the cost in the statewide Pennsylvania Education Purchasing Program for Microcomputers contract, according to the district.

The 117 classroom micro personal computers, costing about $62,000, will replace classroom display board computers from 2015 that the district says can’t run Windows 11 and will lose support from Microsoft on Oct. 14. The district saved about $82,600 by buying refurbished devices versus new.

That number is only a third of the district’s 300 display board devices. The district’s technology team is working on ways to maximize the lifespan of the unsupported devices.

The 80 2-in-1 Dell laptops, costing about $108,000, will be issued to teachers to replace devices that are more than five years old.

The district will pay Apple about $13,400 for a dozen MacBook Airs described as “Music Macs.”

Students return to classes on Aug. 20.

Auditorium updates

The Pine-Richland High School auditorium will be receiving updates and repairs.

The board approved paying Pittsburgh Stage about $69,310 to replace the house lighting and curtains and repair the projection screen.

The cost breaks down to about $49,810 for the house lighting, $15,610 for side wall curtains and $3,890 to repair the projection screen. The money will come from the district’s capital funding plan for the 2025-26 school year.

The house lighting and curtain systems had reached the end of their useful life, according to the district.

The district saved about $9,000 by having its facilities department help with removing and reinstalling seating sections.

The district’s goal is for all of the work to be finished before school starts in August, spokeswoman Erin Hasinger said.

Other work the school board approved at Pine-Richland High School:

• At a cost of about $15,800, replacing worn and damaged vestibule flooring in the main and athletic entrances with new carpeting, which the district has used in recent updates at Wexford and Richland elementary schools.

• At a cost of about $13,600, replacing the damaged vinyl flooring in the pool team room with new rubber flooring as part of planned pool updates from a recent architectural evaluation.

For both flooring projects, Mannington Commercial will provide the materials while Dan Taylor Interiors will install them. The costs will be covered by the district’s 2024-25 capital funding plan.