D97 board hears technology plan and recommends multi-year device refresh; cloud phone upgrade proposed

Oak Park Elementary School District 97 technology staff on April 8 presented a technology plan that recommends a multi-year device refresh and other infrastructure changes aimed at expanding classroom access to digital tools and simplifying district communications.

Michael Ehrensdorf, chief technology officer, told the board the presentation was grounded in classroom outcomes, using a second-grade student’s biography project to illustrate how remote interviews and assistive tools improved engagement. “This is not about the technology. It’s about what Louie just talked about,” Ehrensdorf said, referencing a student presentation earlier in the meeting.

The district’s recommendations include a student-device refresh that staggers iPad and Chromebook leases and extends iPad refresh cycles to five years. Ehrensdorf said the district typically refreshes student devices every four years but is recommending a five-year plan for the newest iPads to capture the improved device capacity of the recently released models.

Key procurement and finance details presented to the board:

- Vendors: The district ran an RFP with roughly 40 responses and held 16 focus groups; Lenovo was identified as the Chromebook vendor under consideration and Logitech keyboard cases were selected for many elementary iPad deployments. - Timing and tariffs: Ehrensdorf said the district was timing Chromebook quotes ahead of tariff changes scheduled to take effect April 25; locking in quotes before that date would avoid additional tariff-driven costs. - Grants and offsets: The presentation cited prior federal funding, including an Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) award in 2021 that reimbursed about $1.25 million and an E-Rate reimbursement of roughly $400,000 for recent infrastructure work. The district expects a conservative $250,000 in device buyback/resale proceeds to offset first-year costs. - Leasing options: Apple offers a 0% financing lease for iPads over four years; Chromebook financing and lease terms were also discussed, with staff recommending a mix of four- and five-year leases to smooth budgetary impact. Ehrensdorf said the district has budgeted $1 million annually for technology refreshes and expects the recommendations to remain within that envelope.

Stakeholder outreach: Staff said the plan was informed by teacher, student and parent surveys and focus groups. Technology staff described assistive-technology use cases (text-to-speech, co-writer, accessibility accommodations) and said these features benefit many students, not only those with formal IEPs.

Unified communications / VoIP proposal

The board also discussed a separate, but related, recommendation to migrate the district’s phone system to a cloud-based unified communications platform. Presenters said they evaluated multiple vendors and landed on a cloud solution (vendor named in the staff memo) that would consolidate phone lines, conferencing and third‑party services like fax and SIP trunks, yielding operational simplification.

Staff estimated the five-year cost of the unified communications transition would be about $33,000 more than the district’s current telecom costs but said the new solution would eliminate separate contracts (fax, SIP, conferencing licenses) and provide new flexibility, such as soft-phone capability on staff devices and a single vendor relationship for telephony and conferencing. Staff said the village has already moved to the vendor and that the district explored consortium buying with nearby districts to reduce costs.

Next steps and approvals

Staff said they will finalize contracts and bring formal action items to the board at an upcoming meeting (the district identified April 22 on the agenda preview). The presentation also noted that staff will develop a community implementation plan with family-facing supports about new tools and filters, and that the district is drafting guidance about artificial intelligence use in classrooms.

Board members asked about extending staff-device refresh cycles, the availability of device monitoring and filtering options for Apple devices, and whether some staff device refreshes should be delayed to reduce overlap in annual expenses. Ehrensdorf and Director of IT Will Breckett responded with specifics about vendor limitations, Apple’s management constraints and the district’s lease timing.

No final purchase or contract was approved during the April 8 meeting; staff will return with final contract documents and a recommendation for board action at a subsequent meeting.