NC superintendent: 3,200 iPads sitting in warehouse will be distributed this school year

More than 3,200 iPads are sitting in a state warehouse - 2,400 of them have been there for a year - but North Carolina Superintendent Mark Johnson says the devices will be delivered to districts this school year. He plans to announce details next week about what schools will be receiving them.

Posted 8:43 p.m. Aug 14, 2019 — Updated 9:09 p.m. Aug 14, 2019

Kelly Hinchcliffe

, WRAL education reporter

RALEIGH, N.C. — More than 3,200 iPads are sitting in a state warehouse – 2,400 of them have been there for a year – but North Carolina Superintendent Mark Johnson says the devices will be delivered to districts this school year. He plans to announce details next week about what schools will be receiving them.

Johnson bought 24,000 iPads for North Carolina's K-3 teachers last year, but schools returned about 2,400 of them, or 10%, because they preferred other devices, such as Google Chromebooks. Last month, Johnson bought 800 more iPads using money from his superintendent's budget, bringing the total in the warehouse to 3,200.

"It’s so exciting that the money that I saved in my superintendent’s budget – because I just spend less than my predecessor – I actually bought books for children, and we bought 800 extra iPads to put on top of that," Johnson said.

Superintendent: NC K-3 teachers getting iPads

Charlotte teacher and education blogger Justin Parmenter criticized the superintendent this week, writing that the iPads "are collecting dust at the North Carolina Textbook Warehouse in Raleigh."

Johnson said Wednesday he decided to buy 800 more iPads and hold onto the 2,400 that were returned as part of "extensive, strategic work" his office is doing to help K-3 students. The 2,400 iPads have been in the warehouse longer than expected, he said, due to Hurricane Florence and its aftermath that schools were dealing with.

"Instead of just having a knee-jerk reaction and sending them out to wherever might feel good, we want to make that a strategic delivery, and you’ll be seeing that next week," Johnson said.

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