Rare are the times when the words “prison” and “school” coincide in the same sentence and the news is good.

But for the Waseca School District, the news couldn’t be better in this case.

The School Board recently approved receipt of a donation from the Waseca Federal Correctional Institution for 73 computers, two 17-inch monitors and a scanner.

The value of the donation was quite conservatively listed at a little more than $22,000. But the real value to students and staff who otherwise may not have had access to computers this year is incalculable.

“We might have had to shut down a few machines in labs and classrooms,” said district technology systems director Brian Hering. “It was really a fantastic donation.”

On the surface, the partnership between the school district and the Waseca Federal Correctional Institution seems strange indeed.

But they do have at least computers in common. The difference is that the computers at Waseca’s prison are about 4 years old while those in Waseca’s schools are not nearly so new.

“About 10 years is our replacement schedule,” said Waseca Supt. John Rokke. “This is a great school system, but one of the great things is not turnaround time on our computers.”

The district had been operating on a 12-year schedule before reducing it to 10 this year.

The old computers, Hering said, were operating on Windows 95 and beset with compatibility and usability issues. The new machines will run Windows XP and, in Hering’s words, “really help out.”

Hering said the prison’s computers were all standardized to run on the same software and use the same support systems. That kind of standardization, Hering said, makes it much easier for the district to link its machines into its network.

The new computers were distributed between several labs and classrooms throughout the district. Some already are being used by summer school students at Central Intermediate.

“We’ve got some of them in place and they’re working just fine,” Hering said.

The Waseca Federal Correctional Institution was converted from a University of Minnesota campus building in 1992. The low-security facility welcomed its most notorious inmate in December 2006 when disgraced Enron executive Jeff Skilling began serving 24 years for fraud and conspiracy charges.

The prison also donated dozens of computer monitors to the Waseca School District about three years ago. Hering said they are still in use.