The $34M question: How does MCSD plan to spend SPLOST money designated for technology upgrades?

At $34 million, technology upgrades are the second-most expensive of the 24 proposed capital projects -- totaling an estimated $192,185,000 -- that the Muscogee County School District's administration wants to fund with a renewed Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax.

If voters approve the March 17 SPLOST referendum, the 1 percent sales tax that expired Dec. 31 would return July 1 for another five years.

The Ledger-Enquirer interviewed Muscogee County School District chief information officer Ronald Pleasant to better understand the proposed technology projects.

The $34 million requested to upgrade district-wide technology and infrastructure comprises:

$25 million to upgrade and replace outdated computers.

$3.2 million to increase local area network and wide area network connectivity and wireless density.

$2.7 million for disaster recovery, better ensuring that data and systems can be restored in the event of damage.

$2.1 million for distance learning, including the development of a virtual school.

$1 million for emerging technologies, used to address gaps in service caused by innovation or new needs.

Here's a look at each of these areas:

Computers

Pleasant explained how he came up with the $25 million request for new computers. The average cost of a device for the district is about $1,000, he said. The district has approximately 22,500 devices, he said, but that number is increasing as the 41 computer labs with 32 computers each are being installed with money from the 2009 SPLOST.

"We expect to have four computer labs per high school, three per middle school and two per elementary school," he said. "We are building toward that. Most had one. Some had two."

The 2015 SPLOST would help replenish the computers in those labs when they are outdated. If the referendum passes, the $25 million will pay for around 25,000 more devices, Pleasant said. But that doesn't mean the district would have an additional 25,000 devices, because the new computers are replacing old ones in a five- or six-year span, he said.

"By and large, a mobile device is probably good for three to four years and a desktop for five to six years as far as its useful life," he said. "As they build new software, the hardware is no longer capable of using that software. The components also are designed to last for x amount of years."

Georgia Senate Bill 89, known as the "Digital Classroom Act," would mandate that, by July 1, 2020, public schools deliver all instructional materials and content in an electronic format -- not via textbooks. It also would mandate that all local school boards provide each of their students a laptop, tablet or other wireless electronic device.

"If that happens to come to fruition, we're going to have to find a different solution other than what we have as far as the cost factor," Pleasant said. "Obviously, we can't afford to buy 32,000 devices at $1,000 a crack."

So the bill throws a curveball at the district because it formulated the technology upgrade request in the proposed SPLOST package before the legislation went public.

Pleasant favors the concept, but figuring out a way to pay for it is another matter.

"That's a big pill to swallow," he said.

So if the SPLOST doesn't pass but the bill does, how would the district comply?

"I don't know," Pleasant said. "I honestly don't know."

Another pressure point comes after grants give schools computers. The district benefits from the added hardware, he said, but it is responsible for replacing those machines.

Approximately $2 million of the $25 million would be spent on new servers if needed, Pleasant said, so he isn't sure how many new computers the money would end up buying. The district has about 150 virtual servers, meaning they are located outside the district, and more than 50 physical servers, meaning they are in the district, he said. Some of those physical servers have been online for as long as eight years, he said.

"Typically, what we do is move them to less critical roles," he said, "because they're still OK, but it's not like you'd want your heart machine running off of it. So we start phasing them out."

The average cost for a server is around $14,000, he said, and the box containing eight servers costs about $5,000.

A common complaint Pleasant hears from folks is that they can buy a computer for one-third the price the school district pays. He feels their pain, he said, pointing to the $300 Lenovo laptop he bought for his wife. The district pays around $1,000 -- because they aren't the same machine, for two reasons, Pleasant said:

The mobile devices the school district buys are a higher grade, constructed with sturdier components to withstand the wear and tear from being moved around and used by dozens of people per week.

The warranties are more extensive and expensive because of that use and potential abuse. The district's computer warranties are five years for desktops, four years for laptops and three years for netbooks and tablets.

LAN/WAN upgrades

A local area network, or LAN, is within a building. The wide area network, or WAN, connects the buildings together. To connect a laptop to the network at a school, for example, the building needs wireless access points and it must be connected to the Internet through cables, Pleasant said.

Each school in the district is connected to the WAN, which is a 1-gigabit fiber link, he said. A gigabit is 1 billion bits. The fiber link can transfer one gigabit of data in one second between two telecommunication points.

"If you have wireless access at home," Pleasant said, "and you get 30 megs or 60 megs, well, each one of our schools has 1,000 meg connections. It goes to a central location, where we have an Internet connection that is 1,000 megs. So it's quite a bit faster than your home."

That's because the district averages about 650 megs daily, Pleasant said, and that usage is crammed into the school hours.

"We can't really run three shifts to spread the load," he said. "We end up having this huge peak, and you have to kind of purchase around that peak. People go, 'Good Lord! That's a lot of money!' It is. But, so far, I can't convince parents to sign up their children for third-shift school."

If your Internet speed is too slow for your video at home, you lose entertainment. If your Internet speed is too slow for your video at school, you lose education.

"We have a little bit higher stakes," Pleasant said.

The $3.2 million to upgrade the LAN and WAN will increase the district's capacity Ten-fold -- to 10 gigs -- to handle all the digital instructional materials schools increasingly must deliver to compete with others around the state, country and world.

The district has about $2 million in network infrastructure now, Pleasant said. An analysis last summer from the Georgia Department of Education determined the district should have $5.2 million in network infrastructure, he said. So the SPLOST would pay to cover that gap.

All 56 of the district's schools have guest wireless capability, but only 25 are turned on, Pleasant said, because the others haven't adopted a BYOD (bring your own device) policy.

Distance learning

The 10 gigs also would allow the district to develop more distance learning, including a virtual school program, Pleasant said. A virtual school program could attract students from outside the county, generating more revenue for the district.

"Could Harris County support that? Could ChattCo support that? Probably not," he said. "But they could take advantage of us doing it."

Another benefit of a virtual school would be to recover some of the state funding the district loses from home-schooled students. It could charge those students for subscribing to online classes in courses their parents aren't equipped to teach, such as Japanese or chemistry, Pleasant said.

The $2.1 million in this category also would help the district comply with a new rule state education officials are mulling that would require students to take an online class to graduate, he said. It also would enable the district to implement "flipped classrooms," he said, where the teacher delivers the instruction to the students at home online and they work on the "homework" together in class.

Disaster recovery

The $2.7 million targeted in this category would pay for additional backup systems to ensure the district can access its data and networks in the event of a disaster.

The district's student information system is backed up in Minnesota, and the district's payroll and finance data is backed up in California and Pennsylvania, Pleasant said. If disaster strikes the district, "that means the data is safe, but you still don't have a computer," he said. "So how are you going to run payroll tomorrow?"

Plus, the email system is backed up here. So the strategy could include establishing reciprocal arrangements with other local agencies, such as the Columbus Consolidated Government, to house backup equipment at each other's location, Pleasant said.

Another strategy could be to lease more space in cloud-based servers, he said.

"What we're envisioning is that we would use a combination of those strategies," he said.

Emerging technologies

The $1 million estimate for this category, Pleasant said, could cover the following:

Adding accessories such as cameras and headsets to the desktops to comply with state-mandated computerized testing.

A program run through Xbox Kinect systems that could help autistic students understand visual cues for appropriate behavior. "They create avatars for themselves," he said, "and the child sees the avatar mimicking his or her movements."

Technology upgrades for security systems.

Any unexpected but necessary upgrades or additional technology.

Unanswered questions

Frank Myers, the District 8 representative on the Muscogee County School Board, and John Thomas of District 2 were the opposition in last month's 7-2 board vote that authorized the SPLOST referendum. Myers criticized the technology plan.

"I think the school district needs to better handle the basics before asking citizens to pay for more technology and infrastructure," he said in an email.

Thomas said that his opposition to the SPLOST isn't based on projects.

"I have said for almost a year now, since the beginning of my campaign, that I would not support any type of tax increase prior to a thorough, top to bottom audit of MCSD finances," he said.

Thomas also expressed concern that the district isn't making proper use of the computers and technology it does have.

Asked whether the district has a document that shows how many computers are at each location, Pleasant, who was promoted two months ago into the chief's position, said, "That's a great idea, and that's actually something I want to have."

On Wednesday, the Ledger-Enquirer asked Superintendent David Lewis how many desktop and mobile computers are at each facility now, and how many are expected to be at each facility after spending the $34 million for technology from the SPLOST.

On Saturday, Lewis emailed this response: "There was not ample lead time to pull and cross-reference the inventories of computers from various funding sources (SPLOST, Title 1, etc.) to ensure an accurate count by facility for your timeframe. This can be done but more time would be required to ensure accuracy.

"As for how many new devices would ultimately be placed at each facility, this again would be dependent upon various future developments, including pending legislation that could impact the number and types of devices provided to each facility."

Mark Rice, 706-576-6272. Follow Mark on Twitter@MarkRiceLE.

WHAT IS A SPLOST?

A Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax for education is known as a SPLOST or ESPLOST. The money collected can be used for only capital projects, such as: school construction, addition or renovation; technology; new buses; furniture, fixtures and equipment. SPLOST money can't be used for: day-to-day operating expenses; salaries and other personnel expenses; to offset a budget shortage; books and curriculum.

The 1 percent sales tax lasts for five years. Muscogee County voters have passed the SPLOST referendum all three times: 1997, 2003 and 2009. The previous SPLOST expired Dec. 31, so the county's total sales tax dropped from 8 percent to 7 percent. It would return to 8 percent July 1 if voters approve the March 17 referendum. Early voting starts Monday.

This story was originally published February 21, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "The $34M question: How does MCSD plan to spend SPLOST money designated for technology upgrades?."