Every school needs IT equipment to help students learn, so an IT budget for charter schools is the necessary first step. Your charter school needs a budget before you know what you can afford. Budgeting also helps with allocating resources and prioritizing equipment.
This article covers:
Think your IT is in good shape?
Take the free 3-minute readiness quiz
- Charter school shift from reactive to proactive IT
- Planning an IT budget for charter schools at scale
- Outsourcing to help reduce budget costs
- Including student costs
- Cybersecurity and monitoring
- Plan creation and tips
- How Corporate Technologies can help
Shift from Reactive to Proactive
It might not seem like it at first, but reactive IT can be much more expensive than proactive IT. Reactive IT is when your charter school fixes issues as they come without adding infrastructure to stop the issue in the future. Proactive IT is infrastructure that stops issues before they happen.
Examples of proactive IT include:
- Cybersecurity monitoring (Intrusion detection and prevention)
- Monitoring server hardware for potential failures
- Updating software and firmware with the latest patches
- Endpoint management and monitoring (mobile device monitoring and protection)
Planning an IT Budget for Charter Schools at Scale
If you only plan IT infrastructure for today, what happens when you have dozens more students, teachers, and administrators tomorrow? The answer is to create a budget that scales for several years in the future. It’s likely that you will need to add infrastructure in the future, so this is where your business and financial planning advisors can help.
Some charter schools focus on certain industries, for example STEM or computer science. In this scenario, you need the infrastructure to support it. Science subjects (especially computer science) change frequently, so you need to allocate future budget resources to supporting these changes.
A few items to consider:
- Plan for upgrades and potential fixes
- Budget for monitoring and proactive preventative maintenance
- Create a budget that scales with student and administrative growth
- Don’t forget endpoints like mobile devices
Consider Outsourcing to Lower Costs
You can hire onsite employees, but having several dedicated onsite staff can be expensive. Outsourcing at least some of your IT management has a positive impact on your budget and can help with planning an IT budget for charter schools. Usually, this step also involves deploying some resources in the cloud to help manage them better.
The cost of outsourcing ranges per person, but check with the provider. The cost also depends on the services that you need. Use a managed IT services calculator to determine your own charter school costs.
Outsourcing your IT infrastructure management can help with:
- Managing user devices and network identities
- Lowering costs of dedicated IT professionals
- Get you access to experienced IT people without the high salary costs
- Give you 24/7 monitoring and management
- Provide a help desk for teachers and administrators
Student Costs Included in Planning an IT Budget for Charter Schools
Budgeting for charter schools has the unique challenge of student costs. Most businesses only worry about local and remote infrastructure for employees, but charter schools often offer tablets and laptops for students. This infrastructure increases your costs, especially with the high risk of theft and damage.
Insurance, maintenance, replacement, and repairs should all be included in your IT budgeting plan. Your financial plan will likely include a per-student cost, but it could also increase in the future. Make sure that you include potential future costs as you add more students to your roster.
Student items that could increase your IT budget:
- Student laptops and tablets
- Student applications and licenses
- Monitoring and parental controls on student devices
- Repairs and replacements
- Insurance costs in cases of theft
Cybersecurity and Data Protection
Schools are a good target for cyber-criminals. Most schools don’t have the resources or infrastructure to protect from sophisticated threats. Your charter school doesn’t need the most expensive infrastructure, but it should have effective cybersecurity. Monitoring and detection are essential.
This item is also great for outsourcing. A dedicated managed service provider can set up monitoring and respond to incidents. Completely containing and eradicating a threat is essential for the security of your students and staff. An MSP that has the right cybersecurity professionals can preserve your data, charter school integrity and reputation, and help you avoid costly compliance fines.
Cybersecurity monitoring helps with:
- Compliance
- Data protection
- Endpoint protection
- Monitoring and incident response
- Intrusion detection and prevention
What Does a Basic Budget Plan for Charter Schools Look Like?
To create a plan, you need a plan for the plan! Here are a few tips that should guide you when you decide to make an IT budget:
- Audit: First, audit all your current hardware and software. Your audit will tell you what you have, what you need, and what you might need to replace.
- Goals: Set goals for your infrastructure such as the number of people to support, the number of student devices added, and your priorities for uptime and maintenance.
- Plan length: Your plan should cover about three years of projected expenses. Make sure to include an extra budget for unforeseen expenses.
- Compliance: Keep track of expenses and what you pay out using purchase orders and strict auditing of your spending.
How Corporate Technologies Can Help Planning an IT Budget for Charter Schools
Whether you’re a small charter school or you are a large charter school drowning in IT costs, a managed service provider like Corporate Technologies can help. We manage small to large businesses that need help with their IT budgets, including those with constant reactive repair spending.
Corporate Technologies services a large number of industries and covers every IT support service that you need. We can take you from start to finish with your charter school IT budget.
To see what Corporate Technologies can do for you, contact us today.
FAQs
Q: How much does it cost per student for a charter school?
A: The cost depends on what you need for each student, the number of students, and the internal infrastructure to support them.
Q: What can an MSP do for a charter school?
A: An MSP can help with planning, auditing, deploying, managing, and monitoring IT infrastructure for charter schools.
Q: Where do I start with an IT budget for charter schools?
A: The first step is to audit your current infrastructure, and then you set goals and priorities to determine what you need to purchase.
Q: What IT infrastructure do I need for students at a charter school?
A: Charter schools usually need tablets, laptops, endpoint security, and monitoring infrastructure to support cybersecurity.
Q: Can an MSP help with reactive IT changes?
A: Yes, an MSP can switch a charter school from reactive to proactive IT, which saves money on constant fixes.
