North Allegheny School Board board approves tech upgrades

The North Allegheny School Board approved purchasing up to $1.25 million worth of Apple and Windows devices for students and staff as part of the district’s annual summer technology refresh.

The school board vote on March 15 enables the district to continue to provide an iPad or a Windows laptop to each student from kindergarten through 12th grade. This one-to-one initiative began in 2015.

The cost will be financed over four years, according to the school board discussion. The purchases will be for the upcoming school year and come out of the general fund. The vote is “not to exceed” $1.25 million.

Board Director Dr. Vidya Szymkowiak, board liaison to the technology department, said these technology purchases are one of the more costly expenses the board is asked to approve.

“Technology has become integral to education delivery and technology expenditures comprise a substantial portion of North Allegheny’s budget. As such, it is critical that parent and community stakeholders are continually engaged as administration and the school board consider technology spending,” she said.

A few changes were made for this year’s purchases, which are usually presented to the board every March or April to ensure devices arrive for summer setup, according to Jim Cox, NA’s director of technology and innovation.

Previously, iPads, which each student uses from kindergarten to eighth grade, were on a four-year cycle. Cox said he feels that iPads can last five years.

The iPads that are in their final and fifth year will be given to either kindergarten students or used as loaner iPads. This means fourth-graders will hand in their old iPads, and receive new ones in fifth grade. The fourth-graders’ iPads, which would be going into a fifth year of use, will head for kindergarteners and loaner use, according to Cox.

Students move to laptops in ninth grade. These are not as “rugged” as iPads, and Cox recommends continuing to replace these devices every four years. Freshmen would have these devices until their senior year.

Apple system updates may not be applicable to devices past the five-year mark, making them less usable, he said. Cox said Apple is “notorious” for buying back devices that are still tradeable or containing good parts. He doesn’t want to miss this window.

Cox said there should be no unneeded extra iPads in the district.

“I want to make sure that every iPad deployed is actually being used and not just out there,” he said.

Also, no new iPads will be used as loaners.

Staff desktops can handle a five-year replacement cycle. Middle school staff are due for new desktops, he said.

The technology refresh will include purchases of 730 Windows laptops for students; 90 Windows laptops upgraded for the Tech Ed Robotic lab at the middle schools; 30 Windows laptops used for keyboarding at Ingomar Middle School; 1,430 Apple iPads for students, and 275 Apple iPads for staff.

Also included is the purchase of 1,705 iPad cases.

Families are can purchase one-to-one device protection through one2onerisk.com at $35 per student and a $25 deductible for first occurrence of damage, and $50 for each additional one. Device premiums are waived for families in the free and reduced lunch program. For those not choosing coverage, parents are responsible for all damage, service, or replacement.

The refresh can vary every year, such as in 2021 when the cost was about $1.7 million and in 2022 it was approximately $3 million. Cox said this is due to what devices are scheduled for replacement or how many new devices are needed for grades one, five, and nine. Additional devices can may be needed for staff, teachers, and computer labs.

Student one-to-one device costs are estimated using enrollment data, Cox said. All additional end-user devices are inventoried, assigned a useful life, then assigned an estimated replacement cost. When each group of devices is at its end of useful life, the estimated replacement cost is used to budget for the anticipated refresh.

A technology advisory committee adds input and feedback.

“After the heated debates concerning technology spending in the spring of 2022, we elected to reconvene the Technology Advisory Committee, a group of community experts with broad knowledge of information technology fields, including networking and cybersecurity,” Szymkowiak said.

The switch from four-year to five-year use of iPads saves money and decreases the environmental impact of waste, she said.

North Allegheny has initiated public meetings focused specifically on technology issues, including parent feedback about the proposed student device refresh presented at the Citizens Advisory Committee meeting held earlier in March, Szymkowiak said.