Miss Hanson, an information‑technology staff member, gave the board the annual update on the district’s five‑year technology plan on Oct. 10.

The presentation highlighted a recently approved $9,000,000 request for E‑Rate category‑2 eligible services that the district says will support network infrastructure, and said Manatee County Schools’ share of that five‑year package is roughly $1,800,000.

The update also outlined a technology refresh this school year that includes 1,000 teacher devices already refreshed and a plan to deploy just over 8,500 Chromebooks into classrooms by February 2026; 500 interactive displays have been installed or are scheduled across the district.

“The plan overall is a five‑year plan,” Hanson said, describing a phased approach to device and network upgrades and the district’s recent rollout of a communications module called Focus and a website chatbot labeled “Let’s Talk.”

Hanson described E‑Rate funding changes affecting the district: the federal per‑student discount changed from previous cycles and, based on current survey results, the district expects about $9 million in eligible services with a local match of about $1.8 million over the five‑year cycle.

Board members asked for details on deployment and student access. School board member Mr. Hansen pressed for clarification about “cloud readiness” and local data centers; Hanson said the district runs two local data centers and evaluates cloud migration annually, noting cost and operational tradeoffs. “There are pros and cons to both approaches,” Hanson said. She told the board the district had kept some core systems on‑premises after a cost comparison and a recent hardware investment to support the ERP system.

Hanson also described non‑capital initiatives: continued expansion of a teacher tool (Focus analytics/modules), an in‑house dashboard project (Project Data Fusion) that she said saved about $100,000, a “LightSpeed” classroom management rollout and work on AI pilots tied to curriculum tools.

Board members asked for procurement details. Hanson said interactive displays are purchased through a board‑approved reseller contract (CDWG) and that the district standardized on Promethean interactive displays because of a combination of teacher input, warranty coverage and available professional development. She gave a ballpark cost for a 75‑inch Promethean display at roughly $2,800, and said the district emphasizes warranty coverage and teacher training as part of the total cost of ownership.

Hanson said the district is phasing some material to other campus programs (for example, using older displays in labs) to extend value and minimize new purchases where possible.

On enterprise systems the presentation listed ongoing licensing and support costs for the student information system and ERP. Hanson identified an annual total for the student information system of about $460,000 and described Oracle licensing verification fees (LVF) that vary with the district’s operating budget; she gave an estimated LVF cost of about $86,000 for the current cycle. Board members raised concerns about long‑term ERP costs and cloud migration; Hanson said the district is monitoring peer districts and will continue evaluating staged moves to cloud services when financially and operationally appropriate.

Hanson summarized next steps: the district will submit E‑Rate phase‑1 applications in the coming months, continue teacher training for interactive displays and analytics modules, deploy the planned Chromebook refresh, and continue pilot work on AI and chatbot integrations with Project Data Fusion. She told the board the full comprehensive technology plan will be delivered later in the month.

Board chair members and district leadership thanked the IT team for the update and asked staff to continue working with principals and the district’s procurement office on pricing and vendor management.

The board did not take any formal votes during the technology presentation; staff presented progress, plans and funding projections and accepted direction to continue the E‑Rate application, refresh schedule and communications rollout.