A divided Greensburg Salem School Board approved spending more than $535,00o over four years to replace aging computer tablets and laptops that officials say will no longer function when the next Windows update comes in October.

The board voted 5-4 to buy 900 iPad tablets for the district’s high school students and 65 MacBook Air laptops for teachers.

The district will pay the $535,400 cost over the course of four years — with a $133,000 payment due next school year.

That’s just the start of the computer upgrades.

The district plans to enter into separate four-year payment plans in the three following years to replace middle school student devices in 2026-27, elementary devices in 2027-28 and computer lab devices in 2028-29.

Apple will buy the devices back from the district in four years — the end of their usable lifespan.

Each iPad costs about $324. Devices could be bought back for $150 to $190 a piece, depending on their condition, said Business Manager Allison Willis.

Each new iPad will come with a silicone case with an attached keyboard, said Superintendent Ken Bissell.

School board split on purchase

School directors Kacey Byrne-Houser, Brian Conway, Frank Gazze, Lynn Jobe and Jeff Metrosky voted in favor of the purchase.

Directors Robin Savage, Heather Shearer, Tyler Courtney and Emily Miller opposed the purchase.

The Apple device package is the most cost-effective option the district has found since they began researching technology in January, Bissell said.

Switching to Chromebook laptops, for example, would require the district to switch from Windows to Google software, tacking on an additional cost.

The iPads are also significantly cheaper than the MacBook Air laptops the district will purchase for teachers — which are nearly $900 each.

“When we went into this school year, we said that we were going to limp through with the devices that we do have,” Bissell said. “We’ve had to shuffle and borrow devices from different buildings for different reasons.

“We’ve had a lot of struggles in classrooms where students haven’t been able to use a device because it lacks the ability to load.”

The district has spent about $500,000 a year to replace devices the past three years, Willis said, but those purchases were preserved by Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Funds pushed out by the state during the covid-19 pandemic.

Some board members expressed concerns about the compounding costs associated with the device plan.

“That’s an awful lot of money to be (spending) over and over and over again,” Miller said. “That’s a lot of money on something that only lives four years. A textbook lasts 10.”

Conway agreed.

“It’s kind of tough to swallow that in year three, it’s $400,000,” he said.

Savage said she would have preferred that the board have an opportunity to talk through the device purchase during its discussion meeting last week.

“I’m not comfortable with even just having this brief amount of time as a conversation,” she said.

Technology key to mission

Miller suggested the district switch to sharing devices in a computer lab during the school day and keeping a small supply of devices for students who do not have technology available at home.

This method would come with logistical complications, Bissell said.

“The reason we are ‘one-to-one’ is in 2025, our kids have to learn how to be digitally literate students,” he said. “If we pull technology away from kids, there’s no way we’re meeting our mission.”

Bissell said he fears not offering devices to each student would make it difficult for the district to compete with cyber schools.

“We are not the only show in town,” he said. “In the past, we were the only show in town, and kids and parents, they didn’t have other choices of where to go. … Parents and kids now can say, ‘Which school is going to give me what I need?’ or ‘What school will give my child what they need to be successful in their future?’

“That’s the question that every parent should be asking. And, right now, if they’re saying, ‘That school is not giving me what I need,’ then they can go somewhere else. And the way the structure is set up, when they choose to go somewhere else, it’s a huge dent in our budget.”

Gazze said he reluctantly recognizes the need for the devices.

“We would put them at a disadvantage,” he said. “These aren’t meant to turn our day into a cyber class, but we do have to keep up with technology.

“And, let’s face it: Our world right now is technology.”

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