How will the schools buy the devices bought during the pandemic replace?

Key points:

During the pandemic, thousands of school systems used emergency relief help to buy laptops, chromebooks and other digital devices for students to use in remote learning. When the students returned to the classroom, these devices continued to support individual computer initiatives, ensuring that each child had a digital tool for instruction.

Now, these devices are approaching at the end of their life cycle, creating a key challenge for district's IT leaders: how will they replace this aging equipment and continue to support digital learning without interruption, although it can no longer trust an influx of federal dollars?

Google and Vivacitywhich provides chromebook devices and support to the K-12 school key, recently invited edtech's leaders to a series of round debates at the Chrome Experience Center in San José in San José, California. During this event, K-12 leaders who attended discussed the obstacles they face having to update thousands of student devices in the coming years.

Tim McNese, Director of Information technology for schools of 48,000 students in Williamson County in Tennessee, described how his district had just started driving an individual computer initiative with Chromebooks in a primary, middle and secondary school before the pandemic.

“If that worked, we were going to return next year and maybe make a full level at the same time and slowly bring it,” he said. “Then Covid happened and we all remotely.” Pandemia forced the district to accelerate its plans, and McNese estimated that they made about five years of progress in a single year.

Now, like other edtech directors throughout the country, McNese has the task of replacing all these aging machines. You are trying to obtain the money to buy replacement devices added to the general operating budget of the district.

However, this is difficult, McNese acknowledged, because there is not much flexibility within K-12 budgets. As noted, almost 90 percent of the budget is already committed to the staff. “It's hard to do anything without cutting something that is related to salary,” he said.

Freddie Cox, technology director of the nearby Knox County schools in Tennessee, is in a similar position. Cox is trying to discover how to replace devices for 60,000 students.

“My work during the last four or five years has been to advocate for a reliable update plan that is predictable and that is in our general purpose budget,” he said. “I have conversations with finance (personal) and the superintendent (about how) this is something we have to continue. How do we do that?”

At least now, district leaders understand the value that a digital device in each student contributes to education, COX observed. It is just a matter of finding resources to continue with this type of instructional model.

“I don't know if someone does not agree to be essential,” he said. “It's just that someone has to overcome the drum to enter the budget.”

Strategies for sustainability

During these meetings, edtech's leaders discussed their ideas to spread the payments of new devices over time instead of assuming a great capital expense at the same time.

Under normal conditions, they could update devices for different groups of students in different years. But that is more difficult to do when new devices need to replace everything at the same time because they were bought during the pandemic with the help of emergency relief financing of primary and secondary school (Esser).

“We are trying to find ways to distribute the cost of replacing (all these purchases) that occurred at the same time,” Cox said. “How do we return now and even that, so it is a sustainable plan that we can replicate year after year?”

The challenge facing the districts has some edtech leaders who try to extend the life cycle of the devices and wondering how long the replacement costs can differ. But this strategy generally results in decreasing yields.

“We have been supporting student devices during enough time to realize that there is an important increase in failure rates beyond four years,” said Eli Maloley, executive director of Vivacy.

District's directors are also thinking about how some use devices could strategically eliminate. For example, the McNese district might not replace the devices bought for your youngest students. “Preschool classrooms really don't use them much now,” he explained.

Kelly Sain, technology director of the Thompson R2-J school district in Colorado, said he could see some district leaders by choosing not to allow students to take home more for longer because they are worried about breakage. “Since we no longer have federal stimulus money, where will those difficult decisions be made?” She asked.

Although the lease is an option to spread the payments of new devices for several years, some school boards try to avoid leases, McNese said, and pointed out: “When you start talking about the lease, then the comptroller is involved, because there are ropes united to a lease that people have the view.”

Cox is trying to sell its board in a model that deals with student devices such as a subscription -based service, complete with devices and replacement support. This concept is easier to understand and more acceptable for the members of the Board, he explained: “The device as a service has some interest, because it does not trigger some of those concerns in the state controller office that can have a lease contract. We are trying to treat (student devices) such as electricity or the gas law project, such as a fixed and predictive cost. This is what maintains a modern class.”

Companies like Vivacy facilitate this process. With Vivacy, the districts can buy Chromebooks directly or acquire them as a service that is invoiced monthly. The company offers a platform called V Suite that combines guarantee coverage, asset management and repair training to further help districts to administer their devices.

“District's IT leaders are looking for a new couple breed that can provide flexible terms and prices while covering the device's life cycle through acquisitions, deployment, repairs, management and disposition,” said Maloley. “Vivacy Empuera to the K-12 technology equipment by helping them reduce their total property cost and increase their time available for strategic priorities.”

Do not replace the devices bought to support remote learning is not a viable option, the summit participants agreed, since teaching and learning have changed dramatically since the pandemic began and technology is now a fundamental part of the instruction in the classroom.

“We feel that we finally resolved (some of our capital concerns) with Esser's funds,” said Amie Adams, supervisor of the Public Schools of the Colorado Jefferson County. “If we cannot continue doing that, we will create even more a digital division.”

The former Eschool News editor, Dennis Pierce, is now an independent writer. He has spent the last 20 years as an educational journalist who covers issues such as national policy, school reform and educational technology. Dennis has taught English, mathematics and preparation for the SAT of high school. Cum Laude of Yale University graduated. Welcome to the comments to Dennisp@eschoolmedia.com.

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