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Minooka CHSD 111 discusses tech purchases, student fees and Chromebook leasing
Summary
The Minooka Community High School District 111 board reviewed proposals for new desktops for CTE labs, a Laserfiche document-management implementation and a 4-year Chromebook lease for incoming freshmen, and discussed holding most student fees at current levels.
Minooka Community High School District 111 officials presented several technology and student-fee items for board discussion, including a request to lease Chromebooks for next year's incoming freshmen, purchases for career-and-technical education (CTE) desktops and implementation of document-management software.
District staff said the CTE computer-lab upgrade would add 110 new desktops at a total purchase price of $102,190, to be placed on a four-year lease with a dollar buyout estimated at $27,671 and an indicated interest rate of about 5.6 percent. Staff described the upgrade as necessary to run current CTE software that needs more memory and processing power.
A separate software proposal asked the board to fund Laserfiche, a document-management product the district said integrates with Skyward and would streamline onboarding and personnel records. The district reported a first-year implementation cost of $14,002.50 and ongoing annual costs of about $4,250.
The largest technology line discussed was Chromebooks. Staff said the district needs about 730 devices for the incoming freshman class and provided a gross price of $349,006.70 for the devices. The district described a four-year student lease option that would charge roughly $112 per student per year; staff also presented a summarized annual cost over four years of $94,006.85 for the district's financing plan. Officials said some backend licensing and services (about $35 per unit) are excluded from the per-student charge and that students eligible for free or reduced lunch would receive devices without paying the student fee; staff estimated that district-covered devices would be about 10 percent of the total.
Board members asked clarifying questions about how the Chromebook fee was calculated and which additional licensing or services were excluded from the lease amount. Staff said they had removed certain licensing fees from the student charge and that the district would cover devices for eligible students from district funds rather than by passing that cost to families.
Board members inquired about the Laserfiche scope (whether it would cover historical records in storage); staff said the vendor and the district's printer partner were exploring scanning options but did not guarantee that all archived records would be migrated automatically.
The technology items were discussed as discussion items at the meeting; the board did not take an approval vote on the Chromebooks, desktops or Laserfiche purchase during this session.
Ending: District staff said they would return with further details, cost breakdowns and any recommended motions at a future meeting so the board could consider formal approval and any student-fee changes.
