By Bonnie Washuk,Staff Writer

LEWISTON – This fall, each sixth-grader in Lewiston will have a laptop computer to use at school.

In Auburn, laptops will be available for students in grades three through six.

Statewide, some 36,000 used laptops will be available for students in more than 90 percent of public school districts. The state is selling four-year-old laptops at a bargain price: $48 each, said Jeff Mao, coordinator of education technology for the Maine Department of Education.

It’s been four years since former Gov. Angus King’s laptop-for-students initiative was put in place. Now, it’s time to replace the laptops, considered outdated.

New laptops for seventh- and eighth-graders are scheduled to arrive in August. The state is again leasing laptops from Apple, which offered the best bid, Mao said. The cost to taxpayers: $40 million over the next four years.

The old laptops have some wear and tear, Mao said. “They’ve been in the hands of kids for four years, but most are generally functioning well.”

Earlier this year the state asked schools whether they wanted to buy them for $48 each.

“The overwhelming majority said yes,” Mao said. “I’ve only had 21 out of 236 say no.”

Laptops not grabbed by public schools will be offered to state agencies, nonprofit organizations and parochial schools, Mao said. The cost would likely be higher than $48 because the state has to recover its costs, Mao said. “But it’ll still be a bargain.”

If there are any laptops left, they’ll go up for public sale, but Mao did not expect many to be left over.

The Lewiston School Department is buying 748; Auburn’s buying about 650.

“It’s a bargain,” said Auburn Superintendent Barbara Eretzian. “It’s not good practice to buy old computers, except when you can get them like this.”

Like Lewiston and Auburn, most Maine schools plan to use the old laptops to expand technology to younger students, Mao said.

With the used computers, every student in grades six through eight will have a laptop to use in school, said Joe Julias, director of technology for the Lewiston School Department. The laptops will enhance teaching, he said. Plus, each teacher in grades three through six will get a laptop. Another 160 will be used as loaners when other laptops have crashed, or will be used for spare parts, he said.

In addition to grades three through six, Auburn will also use the laptops at the middle school, and at the before- and after-school day care programs.

The laptops won’t be replaced when they stop working, Eretzian said. “We’ll fix them as much as we can and use their parts.”

The used laptops are covered by Apple for maintenance through June 30. After that, schools are on their own, Mao said.