The Malibu High Shark Fund pledged this month to fund the leasing of 40 new iMac computers for Malibu High School.
New equipment will be installed in the school’s digital design media lab where students work on photography, digital design and the yearbook, according to Shark Fund Vice Chair Holly Kinyon.
The Shark Fund will pay about $69,000 over the course of three years to lease the computers from Apple and cover taxes and eWaste recycling fees.
“These [new computers] are specifically for student use. That would allow 40 of the older computers being replaced to go on down the line to really replace the oldest ones,” Kinyon said.
Carla Bowman-Smith, the teacher who oversees the lab, said students have been in dire need of the equipment for many years.
“The computers we are currently using are close to 8 years old and every week one of them bites the dust!” she wrote in an email to The Malibu Times. “They are also crashing throughout the class period, which can be very frustrating for students as they are learning intricate steps of the Adobe programs.”
The Shark Fund chose to help fund the computers based on monthly meetings held between school officials and Shark Fund assessment needs committee members.
“We have an ongoing assessment of what the needs are throughout the year,” Kinyon said.Â
The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Board of Education will decide at its regular meeting on Thursday whether to award the purchase and lease of computer equipment to Apple.
The Shark Fund has already paid the first installment of $23,000.Â
Melissa Caskey contributed to this report.