Board weighs delaying $2.5M device refresh, plans higher repair budget and accepts Chromebook donation

At the budget workshop, staff told the board a $2.5 million request would fund a 20% refresh to keep devices on a five-year replacement cycle. The staff viewpoint was pragmatic: postponing the refresh for one year is possible but compounds replacement risk and could force reductions in the 9 —1 one-to-one program if delay continues.

Kevin, a central-office official, said a one-year delay might be survivable but warned that refusing each refresh year increases the risk of losing a sustainable life cycle for student devices. As an interim measure, staff recommended doubling the repair budget (currently approximately $100,000/year for parts) and buying only critical devices to cover immediate student needs.

Dr. Phipps announced a donation of 500 refurbished Chromebooks from a Winston-Salem partner organization that will be distributed to high-need schools in the fall. "We're going to use those in the most needed areas," she said, and staff indicated they will recognize the donor at a future board meeting.

Why this matters: technology access factors into classroom instruction and equity across schools. Board members worried that multiple consecutive years without refresh purchases would require programmatic compromises in one-to-one device ratios and classroom offerings.

Budget trade-offs and next steps: the board discussed two mutually exclusive options in staff nalysis: keep the $2.5 million refresh item in the budget, or remove it but add a smaller amount (about $100k) to the repair line plus targeted funds to purchase a limited number of replacement devices. Staff committed to return with site-level data on high-school device status and to present a repair-and-critical-purchases estimate ahead of the April 14 vote.