Billions of dollars in unanticipated funding for new laptops, tablets, 3D printers, and hotspots sounds like a district technology leader鈥檚 lucky day, not a slow moving train wreck.
But that鈥檚 what some educators and experts see when they consider the current picture in many schools. Driven by an urgent need to make it possible for millions of students to learn virtually and fueled by tens of billions in federal relief cash, districts tripled or quadrupled their fleet of devices over the course of just one school year.
Many of those districts have embraced 1-to-1 computing initiatives and the changes to instruction, classroom management, and professional development that come with them. But in a few short years, the devices bought with federal emergency funds are going to be outdated or even stop working altogether, experts warn. Districts have different deadlines for spending various pots of federal funding, but the last of it must be allocated by September of 2024.
Many districts are not planning for that reality.
鈥淚鈥檓 hearing from other CTOs across the nation that there are leadership groups and school boards that feel like 鈥榊ou鈥檙e good, you don鈥檛 need anything else,鈥欌�欌�� said Kelly May-Vollmar, the assistant superintendent of educational technology services for the Desert Sands school district in southern California. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all fine for today, but a few years from now, about the same time the money runs out, we鈥檙e going to have a big problem on our hands.鈥�
The complication goes beyond just the cost of laptops and tablets, added May-Vollmar, whose own district went 1-to-1 several years ago after carefully crafting a sustainability plan.
鈥淵ou鈥檙e teaching teachers how to use [devices],鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e teaching kids how to use them. You鈥檙e spending a lot of time and money. The investment goes far beyond the cost of the device.鈥�
I'm hearing from other CTOs across the nation that there are leadership groups and school boards that feel like 鈥榊ou鈥檙e good, you don't need anything else.' It's all fine for today, but a few years from now, about the same time the money runs out, we're going to have a big problem on our hands
The time to start planning is now
Districts don鈥檛 usually go on a tech buying binge. Instead, school systems with a lot of hardware to manage typically have a set replacement cycle. For instance, they might swap out a quarter of their old laptops and tablets each year and replace with them new ones. That way, no student is typically given a device that is more than four or five years old, and the district can space out its spending over a longer period.
But the federal relief money鈥攁nd the immediate need to help kids secure devices and internet capability in order to learn virtually鈥攎eant many districts purchased a slew of laptops, tablets, hotspots, even 3D-printers and interactive screens, all at once.
鈥淭hey had to do the quick spend, and it was a lot of money,鈥� said Diane Doersch, the technical project director at Digital Promise, a nonprofit that works to improve learning through more-effective use of technology. 鈥淏ut now, they鈥檙e gonna have to start planning: 鈥楬ow am I going to divide this fleet up intelligently so that I don鈥檛 have these high-spending years to replace the whole fleet at once?鈥欌��
If districts don鈥檛 think ahead, four or five years from now they may be 鈥渟tuck with a whole bunch of devices that don鈥檛 work and no money for replacements,鈥� said Doersch, who previously worked as a chief technology and information officer in Wisconsin.
That鈥檚 particularly problematic because districts are reimagining professional development and curriculum to make the most of the new technology. Three or four years from now, teachers will likely have grown used to working with laptops and other devices, particularly in districts that went 1-to-1. It would be a big U-turn to go back to Chromebook carts and computer labs, Doersch said.
What鈥檚 more, for some lower-income families, the school-issued laptop or tablet is the sole device for an entire household.
鈥淚 have heard of families where that is the only computer that the whole family has, and mom and dad have been able to apply for jobs on it and, you know, do these other things that the family needs a computer for,鈥� Doersch said. While there are federal programs to help families obtain devices, they can be hard to navigate, she added.
The first step is to take a hard look at what devices you have and how old they are
One of the first steps many districts must take in coming up with a sustainability plan: Figuring out what hardware they already have, how old those devices are, what kind of shape they鈥檙e in, and where they are, physically.
Doersch suggests districts spend this coming summer analyzing their inventory, asking questions like: Which devices came back from students鈥� homes? What didn鈥檛 come back? What鈥檚 damaged, but fixable? What needs replacing?
Districts also need to consider expenditures beyond just replacing and repairing many more devices. For instance, if a district bought iPads, the tablets themselves may last up to six years. But the power cords will likely need to be replaced long before that. Interactive whiteboards come with remote controls that run on batteries that will wear out. And on and on.
鈥淭here are always hidden costs and tentacles,鈥� Doersch said.
But more devices can open additional savings elsewhere, she added. For instance, if a district has gone 1-to-1, can it purchase fewer textbooks? Save on printing costs? Digitize student documents?
Districts also have the option to seek outside funding. Wichita Public Schools in Kansas is working with Verizon Innovative Learning to ensure that kids at low-income schools can continue to have access to a device and internet services at home鈥攊nitiatives that were initially funded by federal programs that are likely to be phased out. The district has also crafted a five-year sustainability plan for the 50,000 devices it purchased with the help of federal relief funding.
Wichita also brought on new software for teaching and learning, including Nearpod, which allows teachers to create digital presentations and share them with student devices, and BrainPOP, which offers online learning games.
When the federal money runs out, the district may have to take a close look at its software programs and phase out those that aren鈥檛 getting much use or are duplicative, said Rob Dickson, the district鈥檚 chief information officer.
The district may have to be 鈥淥K with not doing some things, maybe those are old pieces of software, or old pieces of curriculum that you鈥檙e not using that you just need to say, 鈥楴o, I鈥檓 not going to renew that, because I鈥檓 not seeing the usage鈥�,鈥� he said.
It may ultimately be tough for many districts to completely blunt the impact of the federal money running dry, even if they are thoughtful about sustainability, Doersch said.
鈥淚t is going to be a big challenge, no matter what, because money that was there is no longer going to be there,鈥� she added.
Although school districts invested a lot of the federal money in new devices, most opted not to use the one-time cash to hire additional staff to help with repair, administration, and technical support. Salaries and benefits can be a hefty, ongoing expense, Doersch said.
That choice left some district IT departments overwhelmed and understaffed, dealing with far more devices but the same number of personnel.
Wichita Public Schools鈥� creative solution to the staffing problem: 鈥淲e started hiring students to do our tech work,鈥� Dickson said.
The district teamed up with Wichita State University and WSU Tech, another local postsecondary institution, to help train the students. The kids get high school credit and dual enrollment credit, plus $15 an hour, in exchange for their work. If the students perform well, Dickson anticipates hiring some of them after they graduate.
Paint the picture of what this looks like in four years if there is not proper planning
The sustainability push may require district tech leaders to wear yet another hat: Public relations professional. They will need to convince school boards to finance new technology to replace pandemic-purchased devices once they become outdated.
Those conversations should start now, May-Vollmar said. When her district launched a 1-to-1 initiative in 2018, prior to the pandemic, she had frank discussions about sustainability with the local board of education, ultimately persuading members to commit to replacing one-sixth of the district鈥檚 devices every year, as a regular part of the budget.
District tech leaders may have to go on a charm offensive, she said, without sugar-coating the fallout of inaction.
鈥淵ou have to paint the picture of what does this look like four or five years from now, if we don鈥檛 have a sustainability plan, and what鈥檚 the impact to our students?鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou got to be able to tell that story and you have to be able to tell the story now, before you鈥檙e in a position that it鈥檚 an immediate need, because technology is not cheap.鈥�
To make her case in Desert Sands鈥攁 district with students from a wide variety of socioeconomic circumstances鈥擬ay-Vollmar collected data on how many students had quality internet access and a device at home. She worked methodically, promoting her plan first to the school board, then school leaders, teachers, parents, and students.
Equity was at the center of her pitch. She told the school community that when students go home, 鈥渋f they have a device and internet connectivity, the world of learning is open to them. [If they] don鈥檛 have that, they鈥檙e limited to what鈥檚 in their textbook.鈥�
To be sure, crafting a long-term sustainability plan and selling it to district leaders is a big-time commitment for IT departments that are already stretched thin.
But that鈥檚 become the nature of the job for district tech directors these days.
鈥淪tarting with the pandemic, tech leaders had to do more than manage boxes and wires,鈥� Doersch said. 鈥淭hey were the visionaries. They had to build strategy. Everything seemed to depend on the technology. And so their leadership game was upped, most definitely.鈥�
