The Saline Area Schools Board of Education approved technology purchases totaling over $900,000 at its March 10 meeting.
The school board approved a “request to purchase 1800 iPads for staff and students, 350 Chromebooks and 35 Omen laptops for the C204 computer lab at Saline High School and 2 Cisco 3110 NGFW firewalls to replace the existing units in the district in the amount of $917,603.58 as submitted by Jay Grossman, Director of Technology.”
Here is the cost breakdown:
- 1800 Apple iPads and cases $668,115.00
- 350 Chromebook laptops $ 94,367.00
- 35 Omen laptops $ 57,050.00
- 2 Cisco 3110 NGFW firewalls $ 98,071.58
The recommendation to the school board said, “In order to adhere to our district recommendation for device replacement based on security best practices and end-of-life/end-of-support timeline considerations, the Technology Department proposes the following items for replacement during the 2026 summer break.”
This recommendation was detailed in an update report prepared by Grossman and Kara Davis, Saline’s Executive Director of Teaching & Learning.
They said, “The purpose of this update is to inform the Board of Education of the recommendation to approve the purchase of replacement devices for K-3rd grade as well as the High School computer lab in room C204 for the 2026-27 school year. Additionally, the Technology Department will be recommending the approval of purchasing two firewalls to replace the existing units in the district over the summer of 2026.”
Here is some of their update report:
“As part of its charge to regularly review and recommend instructional materials aligned to state requirements and best practice, members of the Teaching and Learning Team and of the Instructional Technology Team meet on a regular basis to review instructional technology requests and needs.
In recognition of the growing research on screen time and its impact on student learning, and in partnership with staff, iPads will no longer be provided in Young 5 (Y5) classrooms. Kindergarten classrooms will continue to have access through a small shared set of iPads for instructional use; however, they will no longer be implemented in a 1:1 model.
In accordance with our plan to phase out our BYOD program, we are also looking to continue the yearly replacement of Chromebooks for third grade as those devices will roll up with students each year.
The computer lab in C204 has increased its need for higher powered computers in order to run processor heavy programs such as AutoCAD. The current devices were installed when the C202 lab was outfitted with desktops capable of handling this work. Now that the CAD program has expanded, the need for updated machines has become apparent as the current devices have reached their end of life.
The final item to review are the firewalls which stand between our district internet traffic and the outside world. Firewalls provide the rules which allow internet traffic to enter and leave our district. It is the first line of defense in cybersecurity against malicious actors trying to gain access to our network and data. We utilize two firewalls in our district, each used to protect traffic from our two internet providers. Both firewalls are past their end of life and can no longer receive updates to protect against vulnerabilities.”
