NANKIN — Amid budget cuts thanks to Mapleton Local Schools’ levy failing in November, the board of education received a technology update — including considerations about how the tech department is reconsidering its purchase cycle — at its Monday meeting.
Tech director Craig Wentworth told the board typically, the district purchases new Chromebooks for students every six years. That happens when students are in first grade, and again when they enter seventh grade. That adds up to purchasing about 125 new Chromebooks a year, which comes with about a $39,000 price tag.
With the budget challenges, the district won’t be doing that this year. Wentworth said Google, which manufactures Chromebooks, made that easier this year by extending the amount of time between recommended updates.
“Any device we have that was manufactured after a certain date are going to last ten years now, so we’re going to have to update every 10 years,” Wentworth said. “We’re reconsidering that every five year to six year purchase cycle now.”
As the district deals with its budget challenges and tries to find places to cut, he said technology purchases could be a place to do that by lengthening the amount of time between purchasing new materials.
The board did approve $20,000 for new devices for teacher use at the meeting. Those devices, called ThinkPad e15s, are a new model of Intel laptops.
In his report to the board, Wentworth also highlighted a slew of new initiatives the tech department will be undertaking over the next year. Those included efforts to protect student data and increasing district cybersecurity to protect against phishing.
Wentworth said next year, district employees will have to increase their password length to a recommended 15 characters. Scott Smith, the superintendent, said he already had changed it to the longer length.
According to Wentworth, the longer the password, the more challenging it is for hackers to guess.
Other business
Two new board members — Kathy Goon and Fred Hartzler — will take seats at Mapleton Local Schools following the November election.
Monday’s meeting was the last for long-term board members Shawn Grundy, who serves as the board’s president, and Tom Donley, the board’s vice president.
The board elected ShaNa Benner president pro tempore on Monday. Benner will serve until the new members are installed and the board can hold an election for its president and vice president.
Benner highlighted the service of Grundy and Donley, who served on the board for 12 and 20 years, respectively.
The board also set a date for its Organizational, Budget and Regular meeting for January. That meeting takes place Jan. 8 at 4:30 p.m. in Mapleton’s media center.
At 5:35 p.m., the board entered executive session. It took no action following the executive session.
