With Montclair High School making the switch to Chromebooks, why do we still have old PCs? With most public schools finally making the switch to Chromebooks, the ancient Desktop computers and iMacs are obsolete. Since the school district must pay for maintenance and updates when these computers are not used, the price to maintain these relics diverts public spending away from quality of life and innovation in our schools. So how do we solve this problem? 

One solution is to donate the computers to families who may not have access to a computer at home. When thinking about donating the computers to families in need, an obvious issue arises. Students in need already have Chromebooks. While this is a prominent issue, giving students the necessary resources to do well is important in making sure our taxpayer’s dollars are not going to waste. This makes giving students old desktops a good move both financially and socially, as the school district no longer has to spend money on maintaining these computers and can instead give people a reliable working machine.

Another solution is to consolidate funds for issues that are more important to students and faculty at Montclair High School, instead of wasting them on maintaining old computers. The main issue with this solution is that we would need to find buyers. As the computers are so old, most people would not be looking for an iMac from 2015 at market prices. However, putting these computers on sale would allow the school easy fundraising for senior field trips, classroom improvements, staff hires, and school renovations. Putting the computers up for sale would allow the school easy access to investments made years ago.

The school has many old and useless computers that provide value to neither the school nor the student body. There are some solutions that could benefit the school or the student body, either allowing students to have a better workstation at home or allowing the school more resources to spend on the student body. With good implementation, this could allow many positive improvements at Montclair High School.