By Kenney Kost/editor-in-chief

The board of trustees approved a contract not to exceed $2 million with Dell for the purchase of computers and laptops.

The district has set up a five-year replacement plan for computers and laptops, and this year about 2,400 need replacing, said vice chancellor of information and technology Tim Marshall.

“This year, we used a method called reverse auction, and in that process saved about a half-million dollars watching two vendors bid each other down for our benefit,” he said. “This allows us now to take that money and do other things with it. It’s also a model I think we can extend throughout a number of commodity purchases throughout the district.”

Vice chancellor of real estate Nina Petty presented the board with three credits from previous construction contracts from around the district that totaled about $281,000. She said she owes it to her staff and good contract management.

“When we do these contracts, we basically just manage the contracts in an effort to always be able to get back savings,” she said. “In each of these cases tonight, I have to thank my staff for excellent management of those contracts and being able to bring dollars back to the district.”

The board also approved a contract with Perkins+Will for architectural design and engineering services for the early college high school on SE Campus for about $648,000 and two custodial and maintenance contracts with GCA Services Group totaling about $1.62 million.