Baltimore County school board approves $205M tech contract

Dallas Dance‘s plan to put laptops or tablets in the hands of all Baltimore County school students cleared a hurdle last night when the Baltimore County school board approved a $205 million contract.
County Schools superintendent Dance, as Technical.ly Baltimore reported, has said the new laptop program will begin in the fall with some elementary schools.
Last night’s school board vote was the go-ahead to begin implementing the program county-wide after next fall, a process that will take seven years. The Baltimore Sun reports:

The school system will lease HP EliteBook Revolves, the centerpiece of Superintendent Dallas Dance’s initiative to put a laptop in the hands of every student in the next several years. …
The school system will spend $6.8 million next school year to supply all teachers and students in grades one through three in 10 elementary schools with the devices. That money is already allocated in the budget. But in the third, fourth and fifth years of the contract, as the program expands to other schools, the annual expense will rise to between $37 million and $50 million.