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High-tech hand-me-downs: Schools benefit from excess Forest Service computers

Matt Wilkins was stacking computers like cord wood in the cargo space of a minivan on a shivery Tuesday morning.

By BUDDY SMITH Staff Reporter

His teacher and Hamilton High School technology coordinator, Tony Derricott, handed him the PCs, as he and Wilkins and two employees from the Bitterroot National Forest tallied the high-tech hardware.

Some 39 computers minus the monitors were unloaded from a Hamilton storage unit, plus various individual monitors, printers, CD-R and Zip drives – all bound for Hamilton High.

The equipment was donated by the Forest Service through a program called Computers for Learning, which allows federal agencies a quick and easy way to give excess computers to schools and educational nonprofit organizations, based on location and indication of needs.

The computers – IBMs with Pentium II processors – are about four years old, Derricott estimated, and will replace some six- to seven-year-old machines in one of the high school’s two computer labs.

"They’re not brand new, but they’re better than what we’ve got," he said. "That’s the key."

And, all that was required from the school was to sign up for the donation and a signature from Derricott once the equipment was loaded in the minivan.

The school already has some monitors to mix and match with the computers it received, plus there were some monitors in the batch donated Tuesday, Derricott said.

Counting the printers and other items, he and Wilkins filled the van almost chockfull with nearly 60 computer-related parts, and they still had a few more items to haul to school. The last item loaded was a cardboard box stuffed with keyboards and mouses.

Nationally, the Forest Service rotates computers every three or four years to keep up with ever-changing technology and to stay apace with computer security needs, said Sue Rose, computer specialist for the Bitterroot National Forest in Hamilton.

Other valley schools have benefited from excess computers offered through the federal Computers for Learning program. A few years ago a Corvallis school received nearly 100 pieces of computer equipment, according to Rose, and Hamilton Christian Academy got used Forest Service computers a year ago.

According to Rose, the program works like this: schools can sign up for the used computers by posting a "wish list" of sorts on a Web site. The Web address is http://www.computers.fed.gov. As excess used computers become available, the machines are donated.

Derricott said his predecessor at the high school registered Hamilton for the computers through the site. Derricott said the older computers the donated units will replace are in one of the school’s computer labs. There’s some money budgeted for doing that, he said, but getting the donated computers allows the school to use some of the funding for other needed technology and teaching equipment. He said some of the school’s older computers would likely be offered in an upcoming public sale.

Bitterroot National Forest employee Sarah Caster said a Bitterroot home school also this year would be getting a computer (one is all the school requested), she said, and schools in Victor and Florence are next on the list. She said the program serves K-12 students.

"We’re trying to spread it out, not give it all to one school," Rose said.

Reporter Buddy Smith can be reached at 363-3300 or [email protected].

http://www.ravallinews.com/articles/2003/11/26/news/news01.txt

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