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Board approves purchase of Apple Neo devices and ends bring‑your‑own‑device practice
Summary
The Big Sky School Board approved buying district-managed Apple Neo devices for students and voted to remove the district's bring-your-own-device (BYOD) handbook practice, citing control over filters, equity and device management; trustees discussed costs, deployment timing and communications to families.
The Big Sky School District board voted to buy district-managed Apple Neo devices for high-school students and to strike the district's existing bring-your-own-device policy from the handbook, saying the change will give staff more control over classroom access and increase equity among students.
Superintendent (speaking as Superintendent) told trustees the change is intended to "level out' the technology offering" so students rely on district-managed equipment rather than a mix of personal devices and older Chromebooks. "I think eliminating... bringing your own device to the school," the Superintendent said, "we need to eliminate bringing your own device to the school." A trustee who participated in the technology committee said the recommendation came after meetings with tech staff and parents and that the district could fund the purchase through the existing tech levy.
Trustees discussed costs and payment schedules during the meeting. One administrator read figures from the purchase spreadsheet, stating, "The initial is 133,000," while another attendee summarized an alternative estimate, saying "The initial is about 60,000." Board members characterized those as different ways of presenting the four-year purchase plan rather than contradictory proposals and noted Chromebooks will be reused in other grades rather than discarded.
The board approved a motion to purchase the Apple devices and then approved a separate motion to remove the BYOD language from the handbook. The removal of BYOD passed with a recorded 3—1 vote; the device purchase was approved unanimously. Trustees said the district will issue communications to families instructing them not to buy consumer devices for students and will follow up with formal handbook language and an adoption timeline.
Tech staff explained the new managed devices will carry the district's safety filters and monitoring tools and that filters and device controls can follow a district device offline as well. Trustees said additional policy language and communications will be drafted and presented for approval in a future meeting.
Next steps: administrators will finalize procurement details, schedule device rollout according to the vendor timeline, and circulate revised handbook language and family guidance before implementation.
