FREEHOLD – The Freehold Borough K-8 School District Board of Education has authorized a lease-purchase agreement for 190 laptop computers at a cost of $79,919.
On Aug. 7, board members authorized Business Administrator Joseph Howe to enter into a lease agreement with Dell Financial Services for 190 Chromebook laptop computers from Dell Marketing LP, plus 190 Google Chrome OS management console licenses for education and 190 Go Guardian web filtering licenses, also from Dell Marketing LP.
According to district administrators, Dell Financial Services offers lease-purchase financing for a four-year term at an annual cost of $19,979. The annual cost is comprised of an $18,210 payment for the laptop computers, a $1,290 payment for the operating system and a $479 payment for the web filter. The total lease payment for the four-year term is $79,919, with a $1 buyout at the end of the lease, at which time the equipment will become the property of the district.
The purpose of the lease-purchase agreement for the laptop computers, operating system and web filter is to help implement a 1:1 device initiative at the Freehold Intermediate School to provide each student with a laptop computer.
In other business, the board authorized the district’s architect, William Hopkins, to prepare plans and specifications for bids on the installation of an additional natural gas generator at the Freehold Learning Center elementary school, Dutch Lane Road.
The purpose of expanding emergency backup generator capacity at the school, according to district administrators, is for the purpose of adding heating systems to emergency power to maintain an above freezing temperature in the building during a winter power outage.
The approximate cost of the additional natural gas generator is $564,000, which the board included as an additional aid appropriation on July 17, according to district administrators.
And, the board reappointed Michael George and Steven Mirabelli as temporary security monitors, effective Sept. 1. George and Mirabelli will each be paid $18 per hour to assist with security and traffic assistance during ongoing construction projects at the Park Avenue Complex and at the Freehold Learning Center. The projects are expected to be finished by the end of the year, which is when the temporary security assignments will end.
