Economics came to the School Board meeting March 24, as board members were asked to ratify a previous purchase exceeding normal purchase authority, made to lock in fast rising prices.
“I am asking you to ratify the purchase of 200 Chromebooks,” District Superintendent Jeff Koenig said. “I notified you by email. You don’t have to do it.”
The Chromebooks, purchased from Krista computers for $53,400, had been one of two quotes received, the other coming from CWG.
“Really what’s been going on is the tariffs or fear of tariffs everything’s been going up,” Koenig said for explanation. Factoring into the timing was that Krista had guaranteed their quote for two weeks and was available while CWG would not guarantee their quote, requiring a decision on the spot. Neither Krista nor CWG would guarantee prices for long, with CWG since selling out its stock of the quoted device and switching to a different one.
Motion to ratify the purchase from Krista was made by Chad Verbeten and seconded by Toni Seidl. The new HP Chromebooks 11 G9 EE from Krista will cost $266 per unit and include a Celeron Processor N4500, capable of 1.10 Ghz w/B with a 4 MB Cache. In addition the new learning devices will have Google Chrome OS Management Service only, the contract including a 60 month support term. The district keeps an inventory of approximately 1,000 Chromebooks which it switches out at different intervals on a five year rotating basis.
As for purchase timing, the decision resembles one from years prior, when board approval was given retroactively for contract work on the elementary school playground after someone walked their dog behind the school in then new concrete, leaving footprints.
In the playground case, waiting for board approval would have meant that the playground wasn’t ready for school opening. The school board made a note at the time that it be notified by email of such decisions. The limit for entering contracts without board approval was raised in March of 2021 from 10,000 to $20,000.
More recently, price uncertainty moved the board at its February meeting to ask Koenig to review dollar amounts for limitations, in light of inflation. With cumulative inflation up 17 percent since the limit was last raised , the current equivalent of $20,000 would be $23,986. Allowing in turn for future change, the new amount of $25,000 was included in a revised District policy 1230 under SL 7 Financial Administration, having its first reading this month.
The new limitation becomes official upon a second reading, per board policy.