On Nov. 1, the Rowan-Salisbury School System will be selling gently used MacBooks, iMacs, iPad 2s and iPods to the public.

As the school system implements its one-to-one digital conversion, which puts an laptop or iPad into the hands of every teacher and student between third and 12th grade to use both at home and school throughout the year, old devices have been replaced with new ones.

Part of the digital conversion plan is to sell the devices that will no longer be used to funnel money back into the fund that pays the lease on the current devices.

“These are the machines that came out of the high schools, where we’ve already put the one-to-one in place,” said Technical Support Coordinator Dawn Fox.

“We were given two options,” said Director of Technology Candace Salmon-Hosey. They could sell the devices back to a major corporation or sell them in house.

While she said selling them back to a major corporation would have been easier, they chose the other route  because it gave them an opportunity to provide quality technical devices to those in the community who couldn’t typically afford them at full price.

The sale will be open to district employees before it is opened to the public.

“It allows us to give back to the community,” Salmon-Hosey said.

Director of Digital Innovation Andrew Smith said the sale gives people in the community “an opportunity to be exposed to a world beyond Rowan County,” as well as to conduct job searches and write resumés.

Salmon-Hosey said prices were determined by finding a middle ground between prices for similar devices on online bidding sites and how much a buy-back company would pay.

“This is not a common thing,” she said, adding that charter schools and churches have also expressed interest in the technology.

This isn’t the first time the district’s held a technology sale. Roughly 10 years ago, Fox convinced skeptical district leaders to allow her to organize the first one.

“Everything was supposed to go on state bid,” she said.

By selling everything in house, they were able to make $20,000, she said.

The district has kept the local sale model as it has refreshed its devices through the years.

This sale will include only products that were purchased through local funding sources.

“There aren’t that many restrictions on selling locally funded items,” Fox said. “We’re real careful we follow the guidelines.”

After the devices are divided by funding code, they are reimaged, which means they are wiped and restored to factory settings.

Smith said the sale is “perfect timing” for Christmas.

White MacBooks will be $100 , and unibody MacBooks will be  $200. White iMacs will be priced at $100, and 20-inch aluminum iMacs will be $250. Sixteen gigabyte iPad 2s will be $150.

iPods without cameras will be $25, while iPads with cameras and iPod Classics will be $40. Airport Extreme wireless routers will also be $40.

The general sale will be Nov. 1 at the Carter building, 1000 N. Long St.,Salisbury. Times for the event will be announced closer to the date. Cash and credit cards will be accepted for payment.