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NEW BREMEN - The district's technology director briefed New Bremen school board members on Tuesday night on rising equipment and hardware costs.
Brian Puthoff told members server hosts and Chromebook costs are skyrocketing and have no indication of leveling off. As such, he advised the board to review the district's technology spending.
The more pressing issue is the costs of upgrading server hosts every five years.
"We use a virtual network here, and a virtual network is run on something called server hosts," he said. "We run two hosts here to operate our network. Four years ago when we purchased a host, they were $12,000 per host, so about $24,000. I got some quotes earlier a couple of months ago and the cheapest was $59,000 per host, up to $83,000. What started out was $24,000 to replace these hosts, which we do every five years, we're up to $170,000 for the same hardware. We need to look really hard at how we're going to proceed in the future."
When asked why the hosts run constantly, Puthoff said the hosts power essentially everything in the building, and "it's kind of a best practice to never have a mission-critical device running longer than that amount of time."
Puthoff said he suspects data centers are driving the hikes.
"Essentially, data centers are what's driving this," he said. "The companies that make memory and hard drives make a lot more money selling much bigger or more powerful components to data centers. This type of stuff, which isn't the type of technology you have in your home PC, they just don't manufacture it as much, so it comes (down to) supply and demand."
Puthoff also mentioned increased Chromebook costs and suggested a hybrid approach, which the district already implements, to cut down the wear and tear of the computers.
The Chromebook model the district uses was $240 last year, he said. This year's figure is $411, a significant increase. The district typically buys 130 Chromebooks per year.
He agreed with the board members on focusing on a hybrid model.
"New Bremen has always been really good at a hybrid (model), especially in the younger grades," he said. "I think that screen time is a big thing. New Bremen has always been really good at a hybrid of paper, pencil, and Chromebook screens, but we'll kind of investigate that even further to see if there are some things that we can do with that as well."
The district loans out Chromebooks to students in grades 1-12 on a one-to-one basis. Kindergarteners receive an iPad. Starting in grade 5, students may take their Chromebook home.
Board members suggested moving that threshold up to later grades as some board members who have fifth and sixth graders said their kids don't use the computer as much as their older kids.
Puthoff agreed but cautioned that the district teaches typing skills.
"What we have to remember is when you go to college or you go to the workforce, you don't hand write reports, that all has to be typed," he said. "We're training those skills for kids who leave our district, so those type of home assignments still need to be done electronically, even if we limit screen time."
On top of that, the Federal Communication Commission has indicated that it may cease E-Rate funding, which is a reimbursable, federal program that supplies schools and libraries with broadband. New Bremen receives about $200 per student every five years, meaning the district would lose out on $82,000.
"We're always looking at the financial bottom line for New Bremen schools," Puthoff said. "I am always doing that. So, of course, we are concerned about the costs of technology because it affects our entire community. Am I concerned about the high prices? Sure, absolutely, I am. We want to do what we can do to keep costs down. That's why we're talking about it."
In other business, board members heard a facility update from superintendent Jason Schrader.
He discussed upgrades to the stadium and track, noting that the project is on schedule.
The project, which has been a topic of discussion for several months, is estimated to cost $2,105,883, including both phases of the track and stadium.
The district approved a $920,000 contract with Bruns Construction to update the track in December. The project includes milling the existing track and base; installing a new stone sub-base, asphalt base and polyurethane impervious track surface; installing new field event approaches with an enlarged high jump area; and installing a second pole vault pit.
At the November meeting, board members awarded a $1,185,883 contract to H.A. Dorsten Inc. of Minster to update the stadium. The second phase includes new concrete walks and a 4-foot, black chain-link fence at the track perimeter with caps, a new 6-foot aluminum fence and brick piers along the east side, new concrete under the bleachers, new lighting and paint under the bleachers, additional lighting for the press box signage, new LED lighting in the concession building, new sideline turf and a new flagpole location.
Among other updates, Schrader said crews have painted the home bleacher support structure, are preparing the area under the bleachers for concrete, are installing a fence around the track and stadium perimeter, will asphalt the track next week, are installing the shelter house foundation, are installing brick on the piers soon, are prepping the brick for the landscape signage, have installed the sideline turf and completed the concrete pad for the second pole vault pit.
In other district upgrades, crews will paint sidewalk curbs around the school yellow, have replaced the high school gym door and will update the high school HVAC controls for the VAV box replacement.
They meet next at 6 p.m. Aug. 26 in the high school library.
