{"id":364209,"date":"2026-08-06T11:16:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364209\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T11:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T11:16:07","slug":"back-to-school-tech-deals-jacksonville-company-turns-old-it-equipment-into-affordable-essentials-for-dcps-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/364209\/","title":{"rendered":"Back-to-school tech deals: Jacksonville company turns old IT equipment into affordable essentials for DCPS students"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 As students across Duval County head back to school, one Jacksonville company is making sure a need for technology doesn\u2019t stand in the way of learning.<\/p>\n

Urban Tech and Repair<\/a> on Beach Boulevard is a trusted partner of Duval County Public Schools (DCPS), offering refurbished laptops and devices to students at steep discounts \u2014 sometimes for as little as $35 to $40.<\/p>\n

\u201cOld IT is the largest waste stream into landfills today, so our goal was really to try and address that and take end-of-life equipment and make it available for reuse and resale,\u201d said Steven Kaufman, CEO of Urban Technologies.<\/p>\n

Steven Kaufman, CEO of Urban Technologies, said the company’s partnership with DCPS fills a critical gap for families who can\u2019t afford new devices. (Carlos Acevedo\/News4JAX)<\/p>\n

The company works directly with DCPS<\/a> to collect end-of-life school technology, refurbish it, and resell it through a special e-commerce site. All computers come with a 90-day warranty. <\/p>\n

DCPS students registered with a OneView account receive a 50% discount, while DCPS employees are eligible for a 25% discount on a one-time purchase per year. Purchases must be made online<\/a> through a parent or employee OneView account.<\/p>\n

Urban Tech and Repair on Beach Boulevard is a trusted partner of Duval County Public Schools (DCPS), offering refurbished laptops and devices to students at steep discounts \u2014 sometimes for as little as $35 to $40. (Carlos Acevedo\/News4JAX)<\/p>\n

Buyers have the option of shipping or pickup at their new location on 11840 Beach Blvd.<\/p>\n

Kaufman said the partnership fills a critical gap for families who can\u2019t afford new devices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really wonderful. I mean, if you think about what\u2019s happened since the pandemic with at-home learning and the drive toward technology in the classroom,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Inside the company\u2019s warehouse, Director of Operations Byron Simmons walked through the step-by-step process of how discarded devices get a second life.<\/p>\n

Director of Operations Byron Simmons walked through the step-by-step process of how discarded devices get a second life. (Carlos Acevedo\/News4JAX)<\/p>\n

The first step is receiving the technology in the warehouse from corporate clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is weighed here, and then once it\u2019s weighed, our sort team determines what\u2019s good from bad from a visual inspection,\u201d Simmons said.<\/p>\n

After passing inspection, devices move through the refurbishing process before landing in the finished goods section \u2014 right next to the shipping area, where the company fulfills orders across multiple e-commerce platforms.<\/p>\n

Simmons said the team ships out dozens of devices each day, anywhere from 80 to 100 laptops on average.<\/p>\n

DCPS students registered with a OneView account receive a 50% discount, while DCPS employees are eligible for a 25% discount on a one-time purchase per year. (Carlos Acevedo\/News4JAX)<\/p>\n

Beyond laptops, Urban Tech and Repair also handles cellphone repairs \u2014 a service that hits close to home for many students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have your own computers that you need repairs done on, you\u2019re able to bring them in here to us. We have a section for that and also cellphone repairs,\u201d Simmons said. \u201cA lot of our students use cellphones, and they keep them with them at all times, and they break.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 As students across Duval County head back to school, one Jacksonville company is making sure…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[54547,1040,1039,1038,113,116,118,117,5436,4443],"class_list":["post-364209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-back-to-school","tag-dcps","tag-duval-county","tag-duval-county-public-schools","tag-education","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-morning-show","tag-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}