Taking a long-view, five-year look into the future, Naperville School District 203 officials are in the process of prioritizing information technology expenses through the 2029-30 school year.
According to officials, the district’s spending plans through the next five fiscal years reflect anticipated shifts in technology and efforts to help ensure students have the appropriate tools to prepare for the current learning environment.
“We do this to allow us to prepare for acquiring, upgrading, and maintaining our technology infrastructure,” Art Anderson, director of IT infrastructure, said of the rationale behind long-range planning. “This helps us ensure that the district can meet its current and future technological needs efficiently.”
Touchboards, Windows pilot beginning in classrooms
A number of specific initiatives are planned in the coming years, based on the plans Anderson and Chuck Freundt, assistant superintendent for leadership and school services, presented at a board of education meeting Monday, Oct. 6.
Smartboards, which replaced traditional chalkboards in classrooms, are being swapped out in the coming years with newer technology known as touchboards, based on the recently unveiled plans. Naperville 203 officials plan to budget $979,000 annually to transition classrooms to touchboards.
Naperville 203 began piloting touchboards in select junior high and high school classrooms late this past school year.
“Elementary now is piloting those devices, and we are hearing nothing but good things,” Anderson said. “The students love it, the teachers love it. We are hearing a lot of good things about these flat panels in the classrooms.”
Last year, Naperville 203 transitioned to a longer replacement cycle — now set at four years — for one-to-one student devices.
The change-up means the district is not budgeting for device replacements this fiscal year, but does have allocations ranging from $1.4 million to $2.5 million annually in the budget for the 2026-27, 2027-28, 2028-29, and 2029-30 school years, since the equipment is replaced on a staggered basis.
In terms of software and operating systems, Anderson indicated the district is in the early phases of piloting Windows software on the one-to-one devices for high schoolers.
“What we were hearing was, when the students were leaving the district, they didn’t have the basic Windows skills in college,” Anderson said of the impetus behind the pilot. “They didn’t know how to save files, how to create folders.”
Wireless Internet upgrade planned for next fiscal year
In the upcoming 2026-27 school year budget cycle, Naperville 203 is planning an installation of wireless Internet infrastructure, which carries a $2.6 million price tag.
The timing of the extensive project, Anderson said, is to harness the most up-to-date technology that he said will better equip all district buildings to handle ever-growing needs within classrooms and other settings within each school.
Plans call for the application of a 40% rebate from the federal government for the wireless Internet installation, which would chip away at the total cost if it is awarded. Naperville 203, however, will have to front the full cost, out of the gate.
With unknowns about federal spending priorities in the coming years a front-and-center topic at the moment, Anderson and Freundt were asked at the Oct. 6 meeting to weigh in on the likelihood of obtaining the rebate.
“I’m optimistic,” Anderson said. “The consultants seem optimistic that they’re not going to cut that because it will affect not only us, but education, across the board. All schools take advantage of this.”
Freundt offered a more measured response as he offered up a projection. “We’re cautiously optimistic that we’ll see that rebate,” he said. “But we won’t know until we know.”
A look at District 203’s IT spending requests for the next five years
On average, Naperville 203’s IT capital spending budget typically hovers around $5 million to $6 million annually. There are, however, a few fluctuations in the plan — notably in the current school year, as well as next year.
Naperville 203’s current IT capital budget is set at $2.23 million, while next year’s spending plan is set at $7.29 million to accommodate the wireless Internet project. The 2027-28 budget is tentatively set at $5.86 million, the 2028-29 budget at $5.05 million, and the 2029-30 budget at $3.94 million.
Anderson said the dollar amounts — particularly for further out years — are tentative and subject to further revision.
“Our projections are based on information we have now,” Anderson said. “The farther we get out in years, we are anticipating a budget for technology that may not even exist yet.”
The board of education is slated to vote solely on the district’s capital spending requests for the 2026-27 school year at its next meeting Monday, Oct. 20.
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