Two years ago voters were asked to decide whether or not to spend $300,000 on Apple Mac computers for the Newfound School District.  Voters heard arguments that Apple computers were more expensive and did not prepare students for the real world, where only 4% of computers are Macs. 

That purchase was rejected by voters sending a clear message to school district officials.  Unfortunately it seems that the message fell on deaf ears. 

Last year the district proposed large technology purchases.  Most of these were challenged as unnecessary.  Voters were not given a choice on these expenditures as over $100,000 in new spending was tucked into the operating budget. 

With no option to reduce wasteful spending voters rejected other warrant articles, including a new teacher’s contract.  Again, the message was clear.  Stop wasting our tax dollars.

Yet school officials are still refusing to listen to the public.  This year’s budget includes a $572,804 lease purchase for 468 new computers.  An alternate plan that could save the District over $400,000 was rejected.  Each computer has an estimated cost of $1,224.  Other districts who seek competitive bids are paying $500 less per computer.

Citizens will not get to vote on this purchase as it was placed into the operating budget.  This means that voters again may have to reject other warrant articles on March 11 in order to keep costs down.

State statistics show that only 23% of computers in N.H. schools are Macs.  As other districts have eliminated Macs, our district employees continue to come up with excuses for not changing.  Universities and businesses reject Macs overwhelmingly for less expensive Windows computers.

I recently spoke with a small group of students from Newfound.  They all told me that they had Windows computers at home and would prefer them at school over Macs. 

Two weeks ago, Microsoft founder Bill Gates predicted that the computer keyboard will disappear.  Current versions of Windows include technology that recognizes voice commands and can translate speech into text.  This letter was written using that technology.  Apple’s operating systems are not capable of this feat.  Is our school district really preparing for the future by betting against Bill Gates and Microsoft?

The choice of which computer systems our children are trained on should not be made by a very small percentage of people who support Apple Inc.  We are the majority.  How many more messages do voters have to send before someone listens?