“It’s back to the drawing board for Henrico County’s School Board, which voted last night to request proposals for a computer vendor to supply laptops to the county’s middle schools,” Olympia Meola reports for The Richmond Times-Dispatch. “Superintendent Fred Morton IV said he hopes to have a decision by the end of January to give school staff adequate prep time before the new school year.”

Meola reports, “Middle school students and teachers use school-issued Apple iBooks, but a contract for the majority of the machines expires in June. High school teachers and students also used iBooks before Dell defeated Apple this year with a four-year, $17.9 million contract to continue the program. At the same time, Dell made an offer of about 14,000 laptops for the middle schools at $20 less, or $1,111 per unit. In a work session this month, the board weighed pros and cons of taking Dell’s offer. On one hand, high school students just began using Dell laptops this school year and some board members think too little time has passed to make a decision about using them in the middle schools.”

Full article here.

Advertisement: iBook G4. Live Wirelessly. Spend Wisely. With Mac OS X Tiger. From $999. Free shipping.

Related MacDailyNews articles:
Henrico to decide whether to ditch Apple iBooks for Dell laptops in middle schools – October 10, 2005
Henrico students ‘excited’ to have Dells after four years with ‘hated’ Apple iBooks – September 24, 2005
Dell VP on Henrico’s switch from Mac OS X iBooks with to Windows XP Dells: ‘a computer’s a computer’ – September 22, 2005
After dropping Macs, Henrico officials work to protect students’ new Dells from viruses – August 30, 2005
Woman wets herself to keep place in line for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Apple continues to lead in customer satisfaction, Dell loses more ground – August 16, 2005
Henrico citizens stampede for $50 Apple iBooks – August 16, 2005
Henrico closes $50 Apple iBook sale to general public; only Henrico residents can buy – August 03, 2005
Henrico moves $50 Apple iBook sale to Richmond International Raceway due overwhelming demand – July 28, 2005
Apple announces 30,000 iBooks deal with Florida’s Broward County Public Schools – July 27, 2005
Henrico residents object to public sale of Apple iBooks – July 26, 2005
Henrico County Public Schools to sell Apple 12-inch iBooks for $50 each on August 9th – July 25, 2005
Henrico blasted for choosing Dell laptops with Windows XP over Apple iBooks with Mac OS X Tiger – May 09, 2005
Henrico school officials on Apple to Dell switch: The logo will change, but the tool is the same – April 30, 2005
Henrico school board dumps Apple Macs, picks Dells with Windows – April 29, 2005
Henrico County Apple iBook plan in jeopardy? – April 02, 2005
Survey shows support for Henrico iBook program with ‘lukewarm support’ for Apple’s Mac OS X – March 07, 2005
Henrico poll finds students are using iBooks successfully – February 11, 2005
Henrico iBooks raise concerns among some parents – May 28, 2004
Henrico high school laptop program to continue, but will it still feature Apple Macs? – February 24, 2005
More schools experience Windows virus, worm problems while Macs just keep working – August 22, 2003
A tale of two school systems: Windows schools crippled while Mac schools unaffected – August 21, 2003