Replacement of ageing technology an ongoing task for school division

The replacement of ageing technology within the Chinook School Division is a delicate balance between good planning and financial limitations.

Rob Geiger, the school division’s manager of information systems, is very familiar with this process. He presented the technology status report during a regular meeting of the Chinook Board of Education, Jan. 9.

He began his presentation by saying the sub-title of his report is basically “replacing old things” and he went through the details of different hardware changes.

“You always have to be forward thinking,” he told the Prairie Post afterwards. “You always have to realize that you’re going to have to spend money to replace hardware and software when it stops working or gets to end of life. It’s part of the business.”

A key factor is the need to prioritize the items to replace, because budgets do not stretch too far and technology needs usually exceed available funds. “We always look first of all at student learning and what’s required for student learning, but then there’s also security and safety from an IT point of view and then we also look at financial decisions,” he said. “Sometimes it is cheaper to spend the money and replace something than to keep something running. Sometimes you can’t get support and you know it’s going to break, and it’s important for what you have to do day-to-day.”

His presentation highlighted several decisions made to provide technology services and support to students and staff.

There are over 5,000 Chromebook devices in use within the school division. The existing devices are gradually being replaced as they reach their end of life.

“They’re pretty inexpensive, they’re generally fairly easy to fix, and most importantly they’re really very simple devices that just turn on and there’s not a lot of things that can go wrong with them from an IT point of view,” he said.

The replacement cycle of these devices are five to seven years. The first Chromebooks for the Chinook School Division were purchase during in the 2016-17 school year and they are being replaced this year. The school division purchased 1,500 Chromebooks for this purpose in September 2022.

“We’ll have to look at that five-to-seven-year replacement going forward,” he said. “Every year we’ll have to buy some Chromebooks to replace the ones that we’ve purchased. … We purchased them year after year in smaller amounts. We didn’t buy all 5,000 Chromebooks at once. So now, as they get older, we don’t have to buy them all at once, which is nice.”

All Xerox photocopiers within the school division, except the large D series with a longer lifespan, are currently being replaced. The process will be completed in the spring of 2023.This is done at no additional cost, because it is part of a regular refresh and lease program with Xerox.

“It doesn’t impact our budget at all,” he said. “It’s the same amount that we spend from year to year.” This replacement is taking place ahead of the regular Xerox schedule due to technical issues with the photocopiers currently provided to the school division.

“We’re actually getting the six-month early upgrade, because Xerox wants to replace them with a newer product that has a much better service record,” he explained. “We don’t pay for service on them. We have a contract. Every time they break down, it costs them money. So it’s worth it for them to replace it right now.”

Smart boards, which are basically interactive digital whiteboards, have been used in schools for 15 years or longer. They are reaching their end of life and are replaced when they fail. So far only 77 smart boards have been replaced and there are still 177 in use.

They are being replaced by Smart panels and televisions, which Geiger said are better devices overall and more affordable. However, it requires a lot of physical work and time to remove and replace Smart boards. It will be a significant cost of about $800,000 for the school division over the next five years to replace Smart boards.

Outdated video surveillance cameras that were installed in a third of the public schools within Chinook School Division need to be replaced.

“As some of these things need to be refreshed, it’s becoming more of a challenge,” he said.

It will be a labour-intensive process, because it is not simply a case of installing a new camera. The old wiring must be replaced.

The school division is also facing an added expense due to requests from other schools for the installation of video surveillance equipment. These schools do not currently have such equipment installed, but they have identified a need for cameras.

This is a cost issue and the school division will have to determine how to accommodate new requests while replacing existing outdated equipment.

The Chinook School Division has started a pilot project to install a new phone system in schools that was developed by E-MetroTel. Most schools are still using the Nortel phone system with 30-year-old hardware. They have continued to operate reliably, but it is expected to need replacement in coming years.

Last summer the Nortel phone systems at Wymark School and the Swift Current Comprehensive High School broke down. The pilot project will therefore focus on installing the E-MetroTel phone system in these schools. A major benefit of this system is its cost effectiveness.

“It has an interface that connects to old Nortel phones and use legacy wiring,” he explained. “So we can literally put this in place for about $1,000 a school and we can use all of those old Nortel phones.”

This will be a better option than installing a completely new phone system in each school, which will require a total replacement of wiring and hardware at a much higher cost.

“It’s possible that this solution could pay for itself within a year and that will be a wonderful thing,” he said. “It’s going to take us a couple of years to implement it. We’ll see how the pilots go. If we get it running in Wymark, our next pilot is going to be the Comp. So hopefully that will be a successful endeavour.”