3 Things to Consider When Budgeting for Technology Within a School District

Planning Pillars of Strength

It’s never too late to identify considerations when embarking on a budget or future forecast surrounding technology infrastructure within a school district. Whether you’re a CBO, CTO, a treasurer—or anybody handling public funds—you should always be aware of these three tools of planning when the time comes for you to replace or refresh technology in your school or institution. 

Knowing your district’s IT infrastructure, creating an equipment overview calendar, and estimating your budget can seem like daunting tasks; but taking the proactive approach will help you plan ahead for E-Rate funds, technology replacements, and most of all minimize risk management should something break unexpectedly.

1.  Know your technology infrastructure
In order to create an accurate budget forecast, you have to understand where your infrastructure sits at that moment—so you can plan how and when to replace it. You should know and document the following into a spreadsheet:

• Brands, models, and serial numbers

• Purchase dates

• Quantities

• End-of-sale dates (when manufacturers stop selling your particular model, but will support tech issues and help find resolutions)

• End-of-life dates (when manufacturers stop selling and supporting a particular model)

• Location of technology on site and type of housing (with photos)

Understanding your current equipment inventory is important, so you can proactively plan ahead (in most cases) years in advance for foundational strategies and funding allowances. Once you’ve physically audited and documented your district’s technology, it becomes less of a monumental task to keep doing it every year—and less of a Herculean effort when it comes time for funding cycles, especially E-Rate funding. (And oftentimes one small error in documentation can jeopardize E-Rate funding.) If you’re unsure of where equipment is stored and how to identify it, partner with a 3rd-party provider to help you. Accuracy is monumental when it’s time to replace that technology.

2.  Create a yearly calendar for your systems
Once you fully understand what you have in your district IT environment, take your equipment list and apply it to a planning calendar of when each of those systems need to be replaced or refreshed. There are two ways of doing this; work with your internal team or work with a 3rd-party provider to put together a design and strategy to replace the equipment when applicable. The age of your equipment will be reviewed first; technology varies, but the industry standard of five years applies. Your planning calendar should notate that accordingly. 

A real-world example: Wireless access points (WAPs) should be replaced every five years. By the five year mark, there’s usually an update to that particular piece of infrastructure or new features that the current software version no longer supports. Definitely work with your internal team or a 3rd-party provider to document and notate purchase dates on your calendar so you’re very aware of when it’s time to replace equipment before it breaks. 

Documenting those purchase dates on your calendar not only aids in long-term planning, it helps reduce short-term costs in surprise repairs or replacement—or larger impacts that are felt by the students, the staff, and the community at large.

3.  Estimate your costs

How do you estimate the costs? Working with your internal IT team or a knowledgeable 3rd-party provider will help you with the design and expense of how much it will cost today to replace applicable systems. But remember that planning for your infrastructure refresh is a forecast for years into the future if you’re planning proactively. That said, the estimate you land on today should include an additional 20 percent to account for that plan of execution happening a few years into the future. 

It’s much easier for CBOs and district treasurers to plan for extraordinarily large capital expenditures years in advance—and receive those funds— with an accurate representation of inventory and costs. Additionally, advance planning increases your likelihood of qualifying for E-Rate funding, which can be crucial in refreshing IT infrastructure at the district level. 

Whatever your IT infrastructure strategy is, be sure to know your infrastructure, document your equipment inventory and replacement estimations on a calendar, and estimate your costs today with an additional 20 percent on top. These considerations will help you significantly in the long run for planning and funding. 

Listen to the podcast for more insights

This topic is heavily discussed on the latest episode of our Pathleaders Podcast. Listen to our discussion by clicking here. (Past episodes can also be found here.) 
Datapath is a nationwide trusted partner in navigating the complexities of large-scale digital ecosystems within school districts and large enterprises. With a team of certified experts and state-of-the-art tools, we are committed to delivering top-tier Managed IT Services that prioritize your district or business’s security and compliance.

Contact us today to learn how our comprehensive solutions can safeguard your school district or business around the clock.