Student Device Shortage
The device shortage experienced in high schools at the beginning of this school year is over. ITS has deployed new devices that have increased inventory so that all schools are now at a one-to-one ration of devices to students.
The student device shortage in high schools was caused by a combination of our repair vendor over promising their capacity to repair our devices and schools turning in a very large number of devices last May for repair (11,100) which overwhelmed our repair vendor’s system. Our vendor also repairs devices for other large districts such as Orange County and those districts also sent in large numbers for repair. In negotiations with our repair vendor, we managed to get them to increase their capacity to 1,000 device repairs per week.
Additionally, our secondary student devices are four-year-old Dell computers. Older devices break more often. Dell does not readily sell the older parts, so they have to be special ordered by our repair vendor. Plus, as students are issued devices, more students also break them and need another device repair.
Over the spring and summer of 2024, we worked with another vendor that sells us our new devices. We managed to get them to speed up their supply chain to cut two months off their delivery timeline. They shipped us all of our new computers by the first week of September. We then deployed them to Deltona HS, Galaxy MS, Mainland HS, Campbell MS, and Ormond Beach MS. This gave use enough devices to redistribute districtwide.
Four years ago, the pandemic relief funds did afford the district the opportunity to initially fund student devices at a one-to-one ratio. We are now transitioning to a five-year rotating replacement of those devices with current budgets. To better manage our device replacement budget, we need to implement a five-year rotating schedule. This involves dividing schools into five groups and replacing one group's devices each year. We are now in the process of dividing the schools up into these groups, instead of all schools being replaced at one time, so that the budget can sustain a replacement of 1/5th of the student fleet each year. This will also spread out repairs more over time. We are continuing to work on lining up repairs, available budgets, and supply chains as part of a plan so that this shortage will not occur in the future. We are also helping schools identify repairs throughout the school year instead of just at the end. Thank you for your understanding and patience as we work to resolve the shortage.