From left, Marietta City Schools Treasurer Frank Antill, Superintendent Mary Schaeffer, Board President Cody Parman, and Board Member Russ Garrison discuss district-wide projects during the Marietta City Schools Board of Education working session on Wednesday. (Photo by Amber Phipps)

MARIETTA – Marietta City Schools Board of Education met Wednesday night for a working session to approve various district-wide projects for the 2026-27 school year.

Discussion items included summer projects, window and door updates, HVAC improvements and leasing for new Chromebooks.

Head of IT for the district Nick Offenberger attended the discussion via phone to answer the board’s questions regarding the decision to lease or purchase 500 Chromebooks.

“We try to go with a seven-year average,” said Offenberger. “Over the last 10 years, Google has been changing their standards on how long devices are supposed to last, but based on our environment … we generally buy around seven years.”

Offenberger said they typically need to replace student computers around the seven-year mark because of the wear and tear on the devicess. He said they’ve purchased about 75 new computers in the past three years.

Offenberger said students aren’t “punished” if they take their computer home with them over summer break assuming they’ll be back at the district the next school year and continue using the same computer.

He said sometimes students leave with the devices and don’t return, which also factors into the district purchasing more computers.

“There’s only so much you can do when the clientele are kids,” he said.

Board member Taylor Huffman inquired about other brands, the lifespans of these devices and if other options were available. Offenberger discussed some options and said ultimately Acer models are more suited for their needs because of the “robustness” and “longer expected lifespans.”

The board approved the purchase of 500 Acer Chromebooks for a total of $212,390 with the plan to purchase another 500 next year. Offenberger said there are computers that need replacing but to spread the cost out over multiple years they would purchase 500 now and phase out old ones and repeat those steps next year.

Director of Operations Derrick Huck walked board members through the details of physical upgrades to the buildings like window replacements and parking lot paving.

The board approved for Capital Aluminum & Glass to replace gymnasium windows at Phillips Elementary. The total cost would be around $62,500.

“These windows are probably in worse shape than most because of the wind,” said Treasurer Frank Antill.

Huck said he has worked with Capital Aluminum in the past and they “did a really good job” on recent window replacement projects.

Huck shared plans to replace doors at the high school, which are “in really rough shape.”

The board approved for Aardvark Communications and Security to provide and install 20 new access control doors at the high school, Marietta Elementary and Phillips Elementary which totaled $41,795.

For paving and pothole projects district-wide, the board approved for McKee Paving to patch areas at the high school, Marietta Elementary and Phillips Elementary for a total cost of $42,239.

After discussion of the projects, the board reviewed their policies before going into executive session for the remainder of the night.

The board is scheduled to meet on the fourth Monday in June for their regular meeting.

Amber Phipps can be reached at aphipps@newsandsentinel.com