K-12 IT – Surviving with Limited Funds

I sent a tweet recently about the need for IT leaders to share survival strategies in these tough budget times. The quite verbose Bryan Sweasy replied that I should share those strategies. I’ll confess that I don’t have the magic wand to wave over our budget woes, but I thought I’d put a few suggestions out there that I’ve heard along the way that might be worth consideration:

• Educate your stakeholders. I was fortunate enough to be included in a meeting yesterday with school and district technology leaders. I gave an overview of our state technology budget situation and we then drew some comparisons to this district’s project list and the limited funds available simply to continue operations and basic replacement of aging technology. I was amazed to hear a school principal volunteer that her staff’s workstation replacement project could perhaps wait a year if need be. Another STC was looking to decrease a previous budget request. This group cared, understood the situation and genuinely wanted what was best overall for the district. The meeting really got people focused on the need to prioritize and it may take some difficult discussions to distinguish between “want” versus “need.” The scene reminded me of the run on the bank during It’s A Wonderful Life when George Bailey was handing out his own money… just enough to get by until the bank re-opened.
• Consider various funding sources. We hear that all the time, but let me put a spin on it. I continue to be amazed at the iPads that “somebody” seems to have money to purchase. PTOs tend to raise money for technology-related purchases. You know what NONE of those people will buy? Infrastructure. Legislators might research giving a device to every child in a certain grade, but they’re less likely to get excited about a huge infrastructure investment. Don’t necessarily take this as a call to upgrade infrastructure, but the reality is that there are some purchases that will not occur unless they come from your technology budget. There are others that may not occur. As you inspect your budget and your needs, try to differentiate between what must be done within your budget (or it doesn’t get done at all) and what you’d like to do within your budget.
• Use terms relevant to others. If those 100Mbps switches don’t get upgraded to 1Gbps switches, what happens? If that station with 2GB RAM doesn’t get replaced or upgraded, what happens? The bits and bytes are your responsibility, but nobody else cares about those terms. As a superintendent noted yesterday, “…lots of people are driving four-cylinder cars due to the economy.” His point was that tech-related tasks may just have to “be slow” for another year. The CIO may agree, but there may be difficulty if aging switches start to die. In this case, I’d compare it holding off on replacing school busses. Things may be fine, but you’d want to try to educate others on what happens if the bus has a major engine problem. It could be a learning experience for you as well. As it turns out, the answer to “what happens if those two machines in the back of the room don’t get replaced” might surprise you.
• Have a plan. Sounds basic, but here’s what I mean. If your goal is a five-year replacement plan for all devices, have those budget numbers available upon request and be able to speak quickly to how much it would cost to replace that lab or implement that project. The same holds true for aging infrastructure, student response systems for every classroom or anything else that’s on your wish list. Even in tough economic times, I occasionally hear (as I did recently) about a district that decides to invest a hefty amount of money in technology. If there’s no vision and nobody to speak to the “what if” and “how much” on the fly, you might miss out. Another benefit to this is that you can spend a LOT of money on paper pretty quickly. Perhaps if you can show how much it takes to simply survive, you can keep other people’s hands out of your technology budget.
• Try to control the users’ urge to add. Our computer ratios speak to the fact that we’re inching toward a “1:1” environment, though it doesn’t get that type of fanfare in most districts. Not only have our student/computer ratios gone down, but we’ve added lots of equipment (and complexity) with more classroom pieces of technology (boards, pads, clickers, document cameras, projectors, televisions, surround sound, wireless microphones and on and on). We’ve also added and specialized with various pieces of instructional software for assessment and learning. Our student information and financial systems have gotten more robust, requiring more technical expertise. What has happened to our tech staffs as a result. For the most part, we’ve kept the same number of people. We may have added a position along the way, but most would argue that our tech departments are spread very thin… more so now than ever. The budget situation is a reality and very few of you will succeed in getting additional help, but the trade-off you need to make (via education of your stakeholders) is that you’re at critical mass, we’re all in survival mode and that means that we don’t add anything unless we take something away. Buying 30 new computers? Show me the 30 that we’ll be declaring surplus. It a tougher conversation when that (as an example) special education director shows up with 30 iPads that you’re expected to support, but at some point those other departments may have to help fund a technician since they’re doing such a wonderful job of funding technology that you’re asked to support.
• Look around and don’t let it get the best of you. When we see what isn’t getting done or what’s being misused or unused, it can bring you down. When we hear about what other districts are doing, we wonder why our district seems to lag behind. Trust me when I tell you that every district has their own proverbial warts that they don’t like to display to others. The education profession is a noble one and, amidst the areas of concern, you can still find hard-working teachers trying their best to mentor our young people. Some of those young people are going to do great things and you’re still a part of all of that. I’ve found that most staff members genuinely understand when you try to educate them on the realities of the budget situation. If they think you’re really trying to help them, they are predominantly a very patient bunch. Everyone has their own stresses, so try to keep a good face on the challenges before you.

I’m not sure any of this helps, but perhaps it was worth your time. If not, enjoy my art work (created in 5 minutes with Paintbrush) and make the most of the day. Take care. JR