Barbers Hill ISD is a suburban district along the upper Texas Gulf Coast, and it was one of the first districts in the state with a 1-to-1 Chromebook program.
Following some maintenance and repair issues with students who took their laptops home after school, Barbers Hill decided its 1-to-1 program would continue only in the classroom.
Kim Muldrow, a systems support specialist for Barbers Hill, wanted a solution that differed from laptop carts. That’s when PowerGistics Towers came into the equation during the summer of 2015.
“The market was very, very low when it came to servicing districts that were using Chromebooks” Muldrow says.
“Everything was iPads and 1-to-1, with students taking devices home at night instead of housing them in a classroom. It’s not very often that I can get excited about a product, but PowerGistics Towers are pretty impressive and unique.”
Design, installation, ease of use
PowerGistics’s distinctive design saves valuable classroom space. The vertical footprint takes less than half of the square footage of comparable charging stations. Storage shelves also provide a central location for student mailboxes or cell phone storage during class.
PowerGistics’ cable management system has built-in cutouts specifically for device cables. All towers have a power bar with surge protector tucked neatly into the back to protect students yet allow for easy access to cables.
PowerGistics Towers ensure devices lay in the natural flat position—and with horizontal shelves, wires are separated from each other to eliminate tangling with other charging cables.
“The wiring for the PowerGistics Tower is superior” Muldrow says. “Every summer we would have to rewire every cart that we had, and it is time-consuming.”
“Our technicians would have to rewire some carts during the year as well. When we placed PowerGistics Towers on the walls we didn’t have to do anything to them.”
PowerGistics Towers allow students to manage charging of their devices with an open design for easy visual inventory and charging status. That frees up teachers to focus on teaching and not device management.
When it came time to install the towers in the district’s middle and high schools, Muldrow says high school students were able to do assembly and installation over the summer. Now, the towers come assembled.
Muldrow says in her previous district the maintenance department spent considerable time building custom storage shelves.
Bottom-line benefits
There are custom colored PowerGistics Towers in 240 classrooms across five schools and the adult education program in the district. Approximately 3,750 students are using them each day.
Muldrow says that since there is zero maintenance needed after installation, and rewiring of laptop carts is no longer necessary, the district can focus on the future, which includes more PowerGistics Towers in its newest building that is under construction.
“PowerGistics has met our needs on all levels” Muldrow says.
