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Educational Technology Information
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Home > Computers for Schools Introduction What was first a concept mentioned in Governor King's 1998 State of the State message to the legislature, is now a reality. The Governor heard that other states had programs where surplus computers were donated by businesses, refurbished by prison inmates, and distributed to schools. He turned to the Department of Corrections and issued the challenge that they create a similar program for Maine.
Denise Lord from Corrections accepted the assigment and began to build a program, even though she had no budget. She got the Libra Foundation to agree to grant funds for a computer shop at the Maine Correctional Center (MCC) in Windham and to cover the costs of a supervisor/instructor for two years. Robert Jaime joined the MCC staff in Windham in August as the supervisor/instructor. He selected from the volunteer inmates those with the most potential, and conducted a ten-week computer technician training course. After training, the 8-person crew started to diagnose the 50 computers on hand. In October, the Department of Education engaged Ed Gomes to facilitate the dispersal of the equipment. The Department of Education, Department of Corrections, and the Maine State Library utilized advisory committees to determine project operations. The committees provided the following guidelines for the dispersal of computers:
(E-rate is a federal program that uses and objective measure of community economic status for every school building.) In addition to the distribution criteria, (which was designed to offer refurbished computers to those schools determined to be least able to purchase new computers) the Maine’s Computers for Schools and Libraries Program faced another critical issue. How to recover the costs for parts and components? The labor was free (as all the inmates volunteered), but it cost $15,000 a month for parts to refurbish 100 computers a month. Approval was obtained to charge the end user school or library $150 per computer to make the program self sustaining. Eligible schools and libraries were notified in February that computers were available and were invited to apply. The number of requests was staggering. 40 libraries asked for 95 computers. The Gardiner Public Library was the first to receive refurbished computers. When their first three computers were delivered on March 12, Gardiner librarian Ann Davis exclaimed, "I never expected computers as good as these!" Schools at the 90% & 80% E-rate level were invited to request computers. Forty-eight schools requested a total of 626 computers. Thirty percent of the requests have been filled as of June 15th. Program facilitator, Ed Gomes, states that all requests will be filled and that they will be filled as fast as we can. A "new" round of requests will begin after all the computers from this round have been delivered. Key to the success of this program is a continuous flow of donated computers. In addition to L.L.Bean, Hannaford Bros., Bath Iron Works, other donors include UNUM, MBNA, Portsmouth Naval Yard, Department of Defense, TJ Maxx, and Marshalls department stores. If you are a business who wishes to donate computers to local schools and libraries then please contact:
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