LEWISTON — While Camden schools are paying “astronomical” bills to repair laptop computers handled carelessly by students, their Twin Cities’ counterparts treat the laptops with care and repair costs are reasonable, school officials say.

The Bangor Daily News reported Monday that Camden Hills Regional High School spent $56,000 on repairs for its 778 student laptops.

Part of the problem is that there were no consequences for accidentally breaking a computer, Camden school officials said. That led some students to be careless, leaving them on the floor where they get stepped on, holding them like a waiter carries a tray and knocking them off desks.

Camden’s repair cost averages $70 per student, according to the Bangor Daily News.

The Lewiston School Department last year spent $6,000 on repairs for 700 student laptops. The average repair cost was less than $9 per student.

The Auburn School Department spent $20,000 on repairs for 1,800 student laptops, for an average cost of $11 per student.

“That’s a pretty good number,” Auburn Superintendent Katy Grondin said. Auburn students treat their laptops with care, she said, because when they don’t, they lose them.

“They don’t like going without a computer,” Grondin said. “They’re stressed when they don’t have their computer.”

Most of the repairs stem from the machines getting old, Grondin said. Students keep the same laptops from year to year. Students in grades six to 12 each get a laptop. They can take it home after parents attend meetings and learn their liability.

“Parents sign the paper, or they don’t get computers issued,” Grondin said.

Students who use laptops inappropriately are allowed to use them for classes, but cannot take them home, she said.

Lewiston Superintendent Bill Webster said Lewiston High School students do not have one-on-one laptops, “so there is no repair costs at the high school.” High school students have access to computers in some classes, study halls, the library and learning labs, he said.

Each Lewiston Middle School student has a laptop, provided by state taxpayers.

Half of the 700 Lewiston Middle School students with laptops participate in the take-home program in which parents attend a training session “and sign off before a student can take a machine home,” Webster said.

Based on his experience as superintendent in the Ellsworth area, he said, “high school students are much rougher on the machines. A one-to-one program at that level needs to be well-managed.”

Grondin said she saw little difference between the repair costs of middle school versus high school laptops. A few get upset and mistreat the machines, she said. “That can happen at any age.”

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