Nov. 8--Friday's announcement that MPC Corporation -- which supplies Gateway computers to area schools -- has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy compounds a problem school districts statewide are having with broken laptops and questionable service.

MPC issued a press release stating that filings were made in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, and company operations are expected to continue during the reorganization process. The bankruptcy notice came on the heels of a Nov. 4 release that said the company had been de-listed from the New York Stock Exchange.

Gateway sold its professional segments, which sells to businesses and schools, to MPC in 2007.

The news comes at a time when Otto Doll, commissioner of the Bureau of Information and Telecommunications, estimates that more than 1,000 state and school Gateway laptops are down and awaiting parts. Doll said it was his understanding that some schools awaiting laptops had opted to cancel their orders with MPC.

"We don't know what (the bankruptcy) means," Wade Pogany, director of curriculum and instruction with the state Department of Education, said Friday morning. "Statewide, we have 11,000 computers on the program, though not all of them are Gateway computers."

Pogany said the lack of parts for Gateway laptops has become a major issue in recent months for government entities and schools statewide.

"We didn't anticipate this (parts problem) happening with MPC. It was thrust upon us in the late summer and into the school year, and it's been frustrating," he said.

The situation has affected, to some degree, all 57 school districts in the statewide Classroom Connections program, the official name for the state's computer initiative. All use Gateway computers, though not exclusively. About 200 of Mitchell's 1,400 laptops, for instance, are Dell computers.

"We've heard from several districts," said Pogany, "and they're all in different places."

Some schools new to the Classroom Connections program are having trouble getting laptops, and others -- the Mitchell School District included -- are having parts or warranty service problems that affect laptop repairs.

"We're working with them at every level," said Pogany.

Pogany said Thursday the state had been in contact with MPC for several months, "trying to figure out what the problem is." Friday's bankruptcy announcement added a new dimension to the problem.

Schools that need new computers learned Monday that they can piggyback onto the state's contract bid for Hewlett Packard Compaq 2730 tablet laptops. Those computers will cost $1,117 each, said Pogany.

That news offers little comfort to numerous districts, such as Mitchell, that already have paid for computers as well as an insurance policy that covers accidental damage.

Mitchell School District Chief Information Officer Dan Muck said 100 of the district's 1,200 Gateway computers are down. Despite cannibalizing parts and using a limited number of spare computers, 70 students remain without computers at this time, he said.

Muck, who also serves as vice president for technology at Mitchell Technical Institute, said the district, which is in the final year of its three-year laptop initiative, has only six months to go with its current crop of Gateway computers. The district is interviewing other vendors.

That doesn't help the student who sometimes must sit for weeks without a laptop, said Muck.

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