Published: January 15, 1997

The Comfort Zone

Tupelo, Miss.

Employees arriving at school district headquarters in Tupelo, Miss., cast wary eyes at the computers that have appeared overnight. Their trusty Macintoshes are still there, but a new Pentium crowds each desk, too. Empty cartons and wayward cables add to the disarray. Though the staff was warned early and often about the switch to DOS computers and Windows95, the atmosphere is still tense.

"You can do anything on Windows that you could do on a Mac," Superintendent Michael Vinson assures everyone at a briefing that November morning. Yet for him, the change is a welcome one. Vinson admits that he never quite got the hang of the Mac after moving from a DOS-based school system to become Tupelo's deputy superintendent in 1994. David Meadows, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, also tries to soften the blow. Training on the new machines will begin next week, he says, and the Macs will remain temporarily...