Distribution to middle-schoolers was delayed a week.

A cabinet that pulled away from a wall at Gorham Middle School damaged about 100 computers just weeks before school opened.

“They all came crashing down,” Dennis Crowe, Gorham School Department’s director of technology, said last week about the Aug. 11 incident.

Crowe said an insurance claim would minimize the costs to Gorham taxpayers.

“At the middle school, we have two kinds of computers,” Crowe said. “We issue the sixth-graders seven-year-old white MacBooks. We issue the seventh- and eighth-graders three-year-old Macbook Airs. The Airs are under warranty and have to be repaired at the Bell Techlogix depot in Westbrook. We repair the white MacBooks in house.”

Crowe said all of the computers had to be examined and evaluated by his department, with the damaged Airs being sent to the depot.

“Ninety-three Airs were damaged,” Crowe said. “Three were totaled and will be replaced at a cost of $699 each. The other 90 were all repaired at a total cost of $47,787.33.”

Damages included broken displays and damaged cases and trackpads, Crowe said.

“All are now back at the middle school except that we are waiting on the three replacements,” Crowe said on Sept. 4.

Crowe said he and his department would repair the white laptops using spares.

“Two years ago, we bought enough spares so that we would be able to repair and replace damaged computers without having to buy parts,” he said. “Even if we wanted to buy parts, finding them for seven-year-old computers would be difficult, at best.”

“We were planning to deploy laptops this past week, starting on Wednesday, Sept. 2.,” Crowe said. “Obviously, after the big crash, that didn’t happen.”

They planned to distribute laptops on Sept. 9 to all middle school students.

“It is important to state that deploying this week is only possible because of the dedication of Michael Nash, the technician at the middle school,” Crowe said. “He has worked tirelessly to complete the task and get the laptops ready, including over 80 hours of overtime over the four weeks.

“Fortunately, the repair costs and Michael’s overtime will be part of an insurance claim so the cost to the taxpayers of Gorham will be minimal,” he said.