ADAMS TWP — New computers and servers are expected for the beginning of the school year after Mars School District officials on Monday approved several technology-related matters.

During a special meeting of the board, members voted to spend $585,844.22 among three vendors for servers, storage and Chromebooks in the district.

Dayle Ferguson, school board president, said the district had previously leased laptops to meet the district’s one-to-one software to student program. With that lease expiring, district officials decided to look at other options that would allow for further upgrades and adaptability as technology continues to change. The move, she said, would shift the cost from the devices used to the servers.

“We believe in the long run, with the speed and the changes in technology, this will allow us to be more adaptable and it will also allow us to be efficient with upgrades and repairs,” she said.

The district put the items out to bid, and received one reply. Jill Swaney, district business manager, then sought state cooperative purchasing bids through the COSTARS program, and found some of the rates in that bid were lower for some portions of the work, while others were not.

“We did our due diligence,” she said.

The board was presented with a proposal in which Cisco US Servers and Jetstor Storage would be purchased from ITPS for $184,440.66; VMWare Licenses and 168 units of memory from Black Rock for $236,180; and 661 Chromebooks and cover cases from ePlus for $165,223.56.

Bidding the items separately allowed the district to save $62,954.78, Swaney said. She said the only issue could be compatibility between the servers and memory units, and if those issues arise, the work would be rebid. Installation of the hardware will also be bid separately at a later board meeting.

The board voted 6-1, with member Christine Valenta voting no, William Pettigrew abstaining due to a conflict of interest, and Rebecca Brown absent.

Valenta said she was concerned only one bid was returned. She said she worried that because the district already works with ITPS for other matters, other companies would not bother responding.

“Something doesn’t feel right with this,” she said.

Valenta added she wanted to know why other companies did not respond, and expressed concern with the bidding process.

“Who would pass up the opportunity to quote on 661 Chromebooks? I don’t get it,” she said.

Wes Shipley, superintendent, said one company had expressed concerns over the short turnaround listed in the bid and opted not to submit a proposal. The specifications indicate the district wants the work done and installed by the beginning of the school year.

Those in attendance also questioned the short turnaround, to which Ferguson said the district would do all it can to ensure the equipment is up and running in time. “Within scope of what we can do, we’ll do everything we can to make a top priority,” she said. “I cant feel any stronger about it than I do right now.”