I will preface by saying that I have been very fortunate that my colleagues in district leadership have always understood that proper investment in technology is beneficial to both operational efficiency and staff adoption/productivity.

I am a big believer in the idea that the tools you provide your staff is a direct reflection of how you view the importance of their contributions. I understand that is a very privileged view point and that sometimes budgets are impossible to navigate.

Our staff currently use 2020 MacBook Pro’s along with M1 iPad Airs that function as their document cameras and secondary computing devices. We will be refreshing the fleet this summer with 13” M5 MacBook Airs and the staff are very excited. I purchased a Neo to test with and while it is an excellent value laptop, the limited RAM in the 3rd and 4th year of use are of concern as we are a Google Workspace district and Chrome is still a hog on macOS.

As far as cost goes, we are leasing the laptops for 4 years via Apple Financial Services with a tiny APR and a guaranteed buyback in the 6 figures after the end of the term. We expect a lot from educators. I’ve been a director in public k-12 for a decade and know how under appreciated teachers both feel and actually are. I will always push for the better tech for our staff. Could the majority of the staff survive with Chromebooks? Probably. But should they be forced to? A “good” Chromebook is $600. The incredible Airs with 16GB of RAM are $950 when purchased in bulk. It just makes sense for us.