'Like a Viking that Died in Battle': Epic's Chromebooks Live Exciting Lives but Eventually Need Repairs
- Trezli Cramer
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Epic's Chromebooks get a new lease on life at an OKC warehouse
Picture this, you walk into a warehouse stacked wall-to-wall with Chromebooks. The air smells faintly like warm plastic and cleaning solution. This isn't a Best Buy or computer repair shop. It's the distribution warehouse for every Epic student's most important electronic device -- their Chromebook.
Your job? Peel off stickers, prep the computers for their next shipments and repair whatever's broken. Keeping the Chromebook pipeline going is so critical to Epic that the district decided to bring its Chromebook serves in-house.
IT Service Desk Manager Joe Holland fixes what people break, while Technical Assets Distribution Manager Kelly Eastmond moves mountains of devices with precision.
This is where technology gets a second chance.
Epic used to rely on an outside service for their Chromebooks, but now that work happens internally. Holland said the change came about because students and teachers needed faster responses and support from people who truly understood their day-to-day needs.
With an in-house team, devices are repaired more quickly, communication is clearer and the care feels intentional, Holland and Eastmond said. This shift allows Epic to save money while doing what’s best for the school community — making sure students and teachers get the attention they deserve and ensuring that their technology works.
Nearly one-third of Chromebooks that arrive at the warehouse need some kind of repair, and that’s where Holland and his team step in. From charging ports that refuse to cooperate, to hinges snapped in half — they’ve seen just about every kind of damage a student can inflict on a computer.
“Most of our Chromebooks look like a Viking that died in battle,” Holland joked, describing the dents, cracks and mystery stains that show up on his workbench. His team’s job is to diagnose, rebuild and restore each device so it’s usable again. Once repaired, Chromebooks are tested, cleaned and packaged before being shipped back out, ready to land in students' hands and get back to work helping them learn.
Chromebooks move in and out of the warehouse year-round, and the pace is constant.
“We’re sending out a couple hundred orders a day at this point,” Eastmond said.
n some cases, a device can't be fixed. When more than two major components are damaged, the cost of parts and labor outweigh the value of the repaired device, classifying it as a total loss. By making thoughtful decisions about which devices to restore and which to retire, the team works to use resources efficiently.
There has been discussion of launching a student training program focused on Chromebook repair — a potential avenue for hands-on learning with real hardware. The idea would give students practical experience diagnosing issues, replacing components and understanding how technology works beyond the screen.
Epic already offers a warehouse internship, and this program could build on that foundation by opening the door for students to explore technical skills that translate into future careers in IT, engineering and technology support.
At the end of the day, it’s not really about cracked screens or busted hinges — it’s about the students behind those Chromebooks. Faster repairs, easier access to working devices, and even future chances for students to roll up their sleeves and learn IT skills like device repair all point to one thing: A device is only a tool in the education of the person looking at the screen.
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