Lake Stevens High School’s Chromebook repair center provides hands-on tech experience for students, saves the school district money and keeps devices in working order.
The Chromebook repair process
When a Chromebook is turned in by a student for repair, it is transported to the repair center.
“We’re able to track them in Destiny, we’re able to check it in.” Chromebook Repair Manager Matt DeCandia said, “When it gets here, we change the location to this location.”
Throughout the entire process, all repairs done are documented in a checklist. Upon completion of the repair, all repairs and the technician’s notes are added to a master spreadsheet. The device is then checked out of the repair center and the location is changed back “to the specific school or person it goes to,” DeCandia said, explaining the tracking process.
With the massive number of Chromebooks in the school district, this process would not be possible without the repair center’s student technicians.
“My computer science teacher came up to me and was like “Hey, you would like this.” Student Technician Dane Satterlee said. “So I was like, “OK, sure.” So I’ve just been doing that for three years,” Satterlee said.
Diagnosing the exact problem on a Chromebook is rarely straightforward, with every device being a puzzle to solve. But, some common issues are easier to see.
“Screens. People drop their Chromebooks and stuff and their screens get screwed up, and that happens all the time,” Satterlee said.
But, it is much cheaper to take out the screen and replace it versus buying a new laptop or sending it back to the manufacturer.
Student technicians save the school district money
Repairing devices instead of replacing them comes with many benefits. The biggest one is cost savings.
“We’re able to buy the parts at a lower cost than the manufacturer and then be able to get them repaired for a much lower cost than what the manufacturer would charge when sending them,” DeCandia said.
Chromebooks can usually be repaired multiple times, even with severe breaks.
This program also keeps previously broken devices going for years, which lowers the amount of E-Waste, which according to the World Health Organization “is one of the fastest growing solid waste streams in the world” from being thrown away, which can pollute lead, lithium and other toxins into the environment.
Students work with IT staff
The program also collaborates with IT staff from the Career and Technical Ed. department handling tech projects throughout the school district, such as computer labs.
“I think we have over 250 computers in Career and Technical Education, and they have to be updated. They have to have programs installed, they have to be built, they have to be wire managed, and all that, and students are a very big part of that,” CTE Enterprise Technician Robert Matthews said.
But installing computers isn’t everything. Problem solving makes up a major part of the jobs.
“We just had a recent issue where Davis’s lab’s computers had issues, and we had to figure out why the X-Plane flight simulator didn’t work,” Matthews said, “And then of course, Cogswell’s lab where the AI generative tool did not work correctly, so we had to work on getting that reinstalled correctly,” Matthews said, referring to two LSHS teachers.
Another main part of the job is maintaining devices, such as desktops, printers, thousands of Chromebooks, projectors and many more devices.
“When COVID hit, obviously everybody had a Chromebook at home…We had to maintain it and try to keep up the high standards that we do have here at Lake Stevens,” Matthews said.
The Chromebook repair center at LSHS is more than a place where devices are fixed. It’s a place where students get hands-on work experience in technology, get a fair wage for their work and help their school district function smoothly.
