Friendswood ISD’s board of trustees approved purchasing 400 new student devices at its Oct. 9 board meeting but is not planning to start a full student device refresh until next school year, according to district documents.

Two-minute impact

FISD trustees put off plans to refresh student technology devices in the 2023-24 school year for budgetary reasons; the move would have cost $500,000, according to district documents.

As a result, district officials for $130,000 will buy 400 new devices, which will be used for testing and as replacements for when students are waiting for their own devices to be repaired, documents show.

The 400 devices, according to district documents, will be split between the different schools. That breakdown will be:

• 150 to Friendswood High School
• 150 to Friendswood Junior High School
• 100 to be split among the three elementary schools

The devices the district will buy are Lenovo Chromebooks, according to district documents. Lenovo’s bid was the lowest of the three submitted.

What else?

Since the full device refresh was postponed, officials intend to carry it out in the 2024-25 school year, documents show.

Starting next school year, district officials will prioritize devices for Cline Elementary, eighth grade students at Friendswood Junior High and 11th grade students at Friendswood High School.