GTechnology Plan Background and Replacement Cycle Overview

Background Information:

After review of the current technology plan replacement cycle, Information Services does not recommend extending the duration or timing of the present replacement cycle at this time. Doing so would extend the practical replacement age of equipment well beyond the 10-year mark, and well beyond the reasonable and expected life for technology equipment.

Presented below is a brief summary of the complexities involved with the tech plan, and how there is more to the story than just a visit to a school once every 3 years.

Foundation

The technology replacement plan is designed to rotate through each building once every 3 years, however, only around 50% of the building technology is refreshed per 3-year visit. This was intentional, and serves to keep the average age of technology at the building at a consistent level, rather than allowing a building to experience a continued aging over a 6-year period, followed by a full building-wide refresh.

Growth Beyond the Tech Plan

A number of outside programs have brought an influx of technology into the classroom. The most notable example of this is the 2009 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (often referred to as “stimulus” funding). This program brought approximately 1,500 additional devices into classrooms above the tech plan foundation.

In addition, building level purchases or other grant programs have expanded the total technology footprint, district-wide, to a present count of 8,363 devices.

The technology plan itself has not expanded to absorb these additional devices, which has the effect of expanding the effective replacement timeframe.

The Numbers

At present, the technology plan replaces 2,981 devices every 3 years (or approximately 1000 devices per year). With an overall fleet of 8,363 devices, it takes approximately 2.8 full 3-year cycles, or 8.4 years, to fully refresh our device fleet.

Sustainability

Despite the 8.4 year “full refresh” duration, we are able to maintain a workable average device age by performing a redistribution of technology annually. For each school visited by the tech plan in a given year, all equipment that is replaced becomes eligible for a secondary redistribution that same year, replacing even older equipment at other schools. For example, if the tech plan delivers 1,000 new computers in a given year, Information Services is likely to redistribute up to 1,000 displaced devices to schools not necessarily in the current tech plan cycle, replacing solely based on equipment age.

Although these redistributed devices are 4-6 years old, they offset the oldest devices in the district, thereby allowing us to sustain a manageable fleet when evaluated by device age.

Summary

The addition of an extra year to the tech plan cycle would mean that the tech plan replaces 2,981 devices every 4 years. For a present fleet of 8,363 devices, 2.8 full 4-year cycles, or 11.22 years, would be required to refresh the device fleet. This would prove impractical, especially given challenges and expense of sourcing parts as devices age.