Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

Otter, Luna, HP officials gather at HP to announce ‘major partnership’ on laptop contract

Laptop computers that are the subject of a new $182 million contract with the state of Idaho are displayed at Hewlett-Packard's Boise plant last week (Betsy Russell)
Laptop computers that are the subject of a new $182 million contract with the state of Idaho are displayed at Hewlett-Packard's Boise plant last week (Betsy Russell)

Three Hewlett-Packard laptop computers are lined up next to a stack of battered textbooks, binders and a calculator today in a conference room at Hewlett-Packard Corp., where Gov. Butch Otter and state Superintendent of Schools Tom Luna are gathered along with dignitaries for the announcement of a "major partnership between HP and the State of Idaho:" HP has been selected as the vendor for student laptops under the "Students Come First" technology program.

On the big screen behind the laptops is the logo for Students Come First, Luna's reform program that calls for supplying every Idaho high school student and teacher with a laptop computer. The state has been in the final stages of negotiating an eight-year, $100 million-plus contract to supply the laptops.



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

Follow Betsy online: