Camas School District (CSD) distributed almost 2,000 new Chromebooks to all 5th, 9th, and 11th-grade students, including Camas High School (CHS), this December as current Chromebooks end their lease.

The Chromebooks used by 5th, 9th, and 11th-grade students are reaching the end of their three-year lease with Insight Investment, an asset management company that provides CSD schools with their computers.

“The reason I do three-year [leases] is that batteries go bad in about that amount of time, and they start to have issues,” CSD Tech Director Sherman Davis said. 

The lease is split into three parts, and another class gets replacement computers each year.

“We used to do them all at once, but there were too many devices, and it was too hard for the school,” Davis said.

The 1,900 new Chromebooks rolled out on Dec. 11 and 12, and the currently used by students returned to Insight Investment.

“The company we lease them from takes them back and resells the devices we have, and that way, we can keep up to date on devices,” Davis said. 

Insight remarkets over 98% of their devices following repairs after leases expire. 

The three-part lease rotation costs $1.5 million, with each third costing around $.5 million. The annual CSD Tech Levy, which will be put to vote in February, pays for student devices. 

For many high school students in 9th and 11th grade, new Chromebooks provide a welcome change from technology issues and poor functioning, possibly due to battery deterioration.

Many CHS students have mixed feelings about the new device rollout. 

“I think the new Chromebooks are gonna be somewhat of a good change, but if they’re not new models, they’re already kind of slow,” CHS junior Eric Kim said. “I think it would be a better idea if [the school] got us better models with upgrades, but if [the budget] physically cannot, I completely understand.”

Other students are not as affected, including seniors and those who bring their computers for school use. 

CHS senior Jacob Allperss recently received a new Chromebook after losing his old one. He had expressed that Chromebook issues were common.

“[The technology issues are] why I don’t use [Chromebooks], they’re slow,” Allperss said. 

For the freshmen and juniors who use their Chromebooks, the December rollout could relieve technology issues. Sophomores and incoming middle-schoolers will have to wait until next year’s rollout.