MACIR programs 2,500 ChromeBooks for Revere Public Schools

Students from Revere MACIR (Moroccan American Connections in Revere) IT training program configured and barcoded another 2,500 ChromeBooks for Revere Public Schools. 

With the programming of ChromeBooks for students over the summer and at the beginning of the school year MACIR’s IT students have helped Revere Schools bring over 4,000 laptops up to date and compatible with the district’s curriculum software and other programs.

“Our MACIR students were at Revere High School for a week configuring this latest shipment of ChromeBooks,” said MACIR director Rachid Moukhabir. “School administrators are very, very happy because it’s a lot of repetitive work. It’s not fun at all but for our IT students at MACIR.”

The help from MACIR to Revere Public Schools over the year has been a win-win for both MACIR students and the district. 

On one hand the school district gets free IT support from a generous organization and MACIR’s IT students get experience for future jobs. Without the help of MACIR the schools would have to hire 10 to 12 additional IT technicians to configure laptops. Moukhabir said this can quickly become very costly for the district. 

“ThIs it an experience that’s gonna help our students build their resume,” said Moukhabir. “They won’t be able to find a job without any experience and this program helling Revere Public Schools gives them some experience that they can claim on their resume that will later help them find a good paying job in the future.”

Moukhabir said the MACIR IT program is an eight week job program that includes training and a certification from Google once students graduate. 

“There is also an internship opportunity component, which includes some of the partnerships that we’ve built with Revere Public Schools, the Revere Senior Center as well as other departments in the city,” said Moukhabir. “We’re very happy about those partnerships because what our students get from Revere Public Schools they can’t get anywhere. The reason is some school systems won’t trust IT students with their computer system. But because of that partnership and relationships we’ve built under the leadership of Mayor Brian Arrigo and Superintendent Dr. Dianne Kelly we’ve shown our students are capable of quality work. We are very grateful to the schools and the city because without these internship opportunities our students would never find jobs once they graduate. Usually companies want six months to a year of intern IT experience before they’ll hire so this hands on experience means a lot to them.”

Revere Public School IT manager Jonathan Ferrera couldn’t thank MACIR’s students for all their  help over the past school year. 

“On behalf of Revere Public Schools and the students and families of Revere we would like to thank Rachid Moukhabir and the MACIR It students,” he said. “The service they provided was an incredible help in ensuring that students can continue to learn in these difficult times. MACIR’s students and staff are incredibly professional and dedicated to the task they faced configuring and barcoding 2,500 ChromeBooks. MACIR students performing these tasks freed up our staff to focus on staff and student tech support without interruption. We at RPS can’t thank them enough.”