To parents of 8th graders who will be getting their same Chromebook back from last year: check your child’s Chromebook for damage as soon as it is issued to your child. The district had so many damaged Chromebooks that they couldn’t repair all of them. They repaired just ones that didn’t work. Those that were damaged but still worked (like those with cracked cases) were sent back to schools without being repaired. WARNING: those Chromebooks are being given back to students as-is. Parents who sign the form accepting responsibility for damages should know that you might be getting a Chromebook that already has unrepaired damages from last year.
This is vital news for parents of students in Gilbert Public Schools: Superintendent Christina Kishimoto’s new revenue stream for Chromebook *insurance* was designed to grab MORE of your your money … because she can. Parents are warning each other about the immutable, built-in *extra money for GPS* aspects of this nefarious Chromebook Protection Plan, so pay attention and spread the word!
This obvious money-grabbing ploy begs the question: If GPS Tech Services didn’t have enough staff to repair damage to two grade levels of Chromebooks last year, how will they repair twice as many this year? Remember, for the 2015-2016 school year, GPS issued Chromebooks to 7th and 8th graders only. Unofficial reports indicated a 75% damage rate for the devices … during the first year of operation, while the Chromebooks were under warranty. There are no *official* reports of Chromebook unreliability, because GPS doesn’t want that information out in public. Nope, it would prove that the GPS Great Chromebook Rollout was never going to succeed because GPS admins didn’t know what they were doing. They just flew by the seat of their pants. Now their pants are on fire.
One of Christina Kishimoto’s demands before this school year started was to authorize a new repair technician position — obviously, even Queen Christina was aware that her Chromebook initiative was flailing and failing. The GPS governing board, as always, granted Kishimoto’s wishes. Unlike the previous school year, not all of this year’s Chromebooks are new and under warranty. So there’s ONE new repair technician in GPS Tech Services, but more than TWICE as many Chromebooks issued to GPS students. Use your critical thinking skills on this question: “How can Kishimoto’s Chromebook initiative succeed under these circumstances?” Answer: “It won’t.”
Apparently, one way Kishimoto’s money-grubbing Top Dogs have figured out to take your money is by issuing a broken Chromebook to your student (don’t think for a minute that GPS will limit the distribution of broken Chromebooks to 8th graders who had the same Chromebook last year). When the least little thing goes wrong with that Chromebook if you didn’t pay GPS protection money, and POW!!! Parents are on the hook for unlimited repair costs, solely determined by the technician whose job might depend on amassing enough fees to pay for that *repair* position in GPS Tech Services. Most likely, since this will be another unaccountable slush fund, Christina Kishimoto will scoop it up for other purposes, like the free lunches she feeds herself and her favorites pretty much every day of the week.
Board President Lily Tram will go all out to give cover to her BFF, Christina Kishimoto, as usual, even though Tram knows full well the intricacies of publicly funded educational institution financing. In her day job, Tram is responsible for a lot of the financial oversight at Arizona State University that Gilbert Public Schools has never seemed to implement. To be fair, Tram has run interference this way for other GPS superintendents, but never on the scale of corruption that has become the norm since Christina Kishimoto appeared on the scene.
A message from GPS board member Julie Smith shows that Kishimoto’s staff already hogtied parents with this protection racket is the answer to, *What’s the worst that can happen?* The worst is that Kishimoto’s new revenue stream scheme already has been adopted as GPS board policy and there is NO LIMIT to the amount of so-called damages that parents can be assessed, starting with an over-priced assessment for a new Chromebook. They’re counting on the fact that parents won’t know what Chromebooks actually cost on the open market ($150) or what private insurance would cost for a Chromebook ($25-$40). Parents have no recourse and kids can’t bring their own Chromebooks to school, ether.
Dear Parents,
Thank you for the questions and feedback on the Device Protection Plan. While answering questions concerning a lost device, we discovered a discrepancy that caused confusion. The Device Protection Plan does NOT cover a lost device. If the device is lost, a fee of $200 will be assessed.
Click here for the GPS Student Device Handbook 16-17.
Brilliant, GPS. Let’s continue with what parents are saying about this atrocious Chromebook Revenue Stream:
Yes, there’s something about a police report needs to be taken if it is stolen. Can we file a police report on an item that doesn’t belong to us?
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Yes, you’re reading it right. Also, if you sign the paper and accept one without purchasing the protection plan, you entrust the GPS techs to determine if damage is under manufacturer warranty, or if you have to pay for the repair. Each repair can have a new fee, so no limit to possible repair bills in a year. You’re free to purchase your own so you have something to show for your money – but you can only use it at home, not at school. You can’t bring your own device to use at school. Oh boy.
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I don’t know that I trust them to determine the origin of damage. They didn’t do a good job of this last year.
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I was told 1,500 of them were sent back to the manufacturer under the warranty, but 90% were beyond repair.
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This year 7-10th grade will receive Chromebooks. All but one grade will receive the ones they received last year. The cracked/damaged ones will be given to the elementary schools. One issue with this is the district didn’t plan for the charging carts going to elementary schools. Therefore they will be getting a lot of Chromebooks but no way to charge them.
The life expectancy of the Chromebook varies depending on who you talk to in the district. I have been told two years as well as four years. I would love to know how many of these Chromebooks ended up in what’s been titled “The Chromebook Graveyard.” Last year, my child’s Chromebook broke four times. GPS finally gave a a loaner, in December. By January our school was out of loaners. My child used that loaner until the end of the school year. GPS never brought back the original Chromebook.
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The estimates for Chromebook damages is around 70%. They were not well vetted and GPS still does not have an IT department capable of handling this much technology, but they do have several other new administrative positions! Oh, and Kishimoto had her contract renewed a year early and included for herself a substantial raise. This seems woefully backwards to me, as our teachers still make less than the surrounding districts and there is a huge turnover rate with both teachers and within the business department.
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I was contacted by the ASBA who tried to contact our superintendent. They were surprised to be told she doesn’t call parents back. She told me by law the Superintendent has 10 business days to respond to parents. News to me!
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The term *textbook* includes digital files. The students are required to use Google Classroom on the Chromebooks, so I would venture to say that the Chromebooks could fall under the textbook definition as students are accessing course material on them.
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The term textbook does not include digital files, as interpreted by GPS. Textbooks are required to be approved by a parental board. They have not put the Chromebook programs under the same scrutiny because they are not “textbooks.” It is a loophole that we currently don’t have any laws to cover.
Far too much is done behind closed doors at GPS. It’s hard to know how they interpret the laws, because they don’t just come out and say it. I am aware that the digital textbooks they are using did not go through a parental board for approval.
Hey Jon Castelhano, Executive Director of Technology: were you blindsided by this outrageous scheme to take more, more and more money out of the pockets of parents of GPS students? Or were you in on it from the beginning? Citizens will be watching to see what YOUR reward from your boss will be. Especially since she *allegedly* couldn’t keep her hands off her subordinate *allegedly* already engaged in an inappropriate relationship with your predecessor dude.
Gilbert Public Schools: one hundred years of tradition unhampered by progress. Or morality. Vote for Westie for Superintendent on Tuesday, November 8, 2016.