Budget Percentage www.summercore.com/budget Web page launched 11/26/05, last updated 7/4/07

Over the years, we have seen numerous postings on listservs inquiring and comparing tech allocations ... I believe the most important statistic is the simple one that tells us what is the PERCENTAGE of total money spent on technology (hardware, software, humanware) in comparison to the school's total operating budget. If interested in contributing to the chart below, please send your percentage to me please mark as ANONYMOUS if you prefer your school name not be listed.

Steve Bergen, formerly CIO, Chapin School (100 East End Avenue, New York, NY 10028) e-mail: ... currently CIO of The Children's Storefront School as of August 2007
co-director of The "Summercore" Teaching Company
see main Web page of www.summercore.com for the Summercore courses this coming summer open to the public

In other words, let T = total money spent by your school on hardware, software, salaries, depreciation ... including academic and administrative and let O = operating budget for the entire school ... the purpose of this Web page is to compare T/O for numerous Independent schools ... miscellaneous comments will be compiled below the red chart.

• Click here for several fascinating and compelling articles by David Moursand from ISTE and University of Oregon which discuss the percentage
• Click here for the link to the NYCIST Data Collection where you will see a chart of at least 20 schools with numerous categories
• Patrick Bassett on Sunday, October 23, 2005 wrote: Hi Steve ... Actually, NAIS does collect annual as part of StatsOnline, school expenditures for technology and for professional development, and it has led us to make the following recommendation, that will appear in an upcoming publication on Financially Sustainable Schools:

  Significant budget for professional development and technology measures commitment to human resources and innovation. This is a proxy for investment in supporting a high-quality learning environment. NAIS ideal benchmark = > 1% budget for professional development and >2% for technology (non-salary, non capital replacements for technology; i.e., ongoing operating costs).

  So, given the documents Steve has shared, let's figure what the total technology % of budget might be.

  • 2%: NAIS 2% for technology ongoing operating costs: i.e., software, leases, licenses, expendables, etc.
  • 2.5% - 5%: for tech salaries and benefits (based on 1:200 vs. 1:100 range of tech staff per students).
  • 1%: Depreciation of hardware, based on a 5-year depreciation schedule and the assumption that schools have on average $1000 worth of hardware per student.
  So, my guesstimate is that the total tech investment yearly for a strongly tech-committed school would be from 5% - 8% of budget.
  Cheers, Patrick F. Bassett, President, National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) 1620 L St., NW, Washington, DC 20036
  

Schools (some schools have preferred to stay "anonymous")

Miscellaneous Comments

• Compiled after 11/26/05 sharing with 3 listservs (ISED, WIzards, NYCIST)
• Joel and I just spoke and we spoke about his 3 excellent points on the ISED listserv 11/26
  --Joel Backon (Director of Information Technology / History Teacher (Choate Rosemary Hall, Wallingford, CT)
  1. Are you including telephone systems, office equipment such as copiers, and A/V in T?
  --> what Joel and I discussed is that there is a "flattening of departments in schools" and that many different functions are converging. Schools that have moved to VOIP, schools that have networked copiers that create PDF files when photostatting and school that have replaced blackboards with smartboards and all televisions with computer projectors will have a HIGHER percentage of technology spending ... what Joel and I discussed is that it is best to try to keep a "narrow definition" of technology in this 2005 survey and avoid including phone systems and copiers as part of this 2005 survey ... we also discussed that like Roger Maris breaking the home run record in 1961, the nature of statistics and surveys inevitably means that we need to interpret the data "with perspective."
  2. How should we handle software that is purchased on an annual subscription basis such as the Microsoft School Agreement or Blackboard? They are treated as operating expenses now. They will definitely distort T/O.
  --> what Joel and discussed is that annual subscriptions, leased hardware and requiring parents to buy laptops will ALSO affect the final percentage but that the overall value of the survey will still be important. There is no question that as schools move further along with technology, more and more "other functions" slowly become part of the technology infrastructure.
  3. Also, would it be useful to ask for T as a percentage of the school's total operating budget as Pat recommends? That is the index used in higher education.
  --> this is exactly what I had intended. I will make that clearer on the top of the Web page.
  
• update 4/22/07: in April 2007, NAIS sent a 4 part survey to their tech directors mailing list
  • part 1 ... 1-16 titled "platforms"
  • part 2 ... 17-21 titled "connectivity"
  • part 3 ... 22-30 titled "staffing" ... see question 29 on how many IT people per 100 students and question 25 on how many full time tech staff
  • part 4 ... 31-35 titled "tech budget" ... see question 31 on percentage of non-salary and non-capital which makes this question problematic and question 35 which is very strange since it asks for salaries as a percentage of tech budget
  • part 5 ... 36-40 titled "about your school"
  I do not yet know whether or not I can share the SurveyMonkey link with anyone and am finding out from NAIS contacts in case you are interested. Steve 4/22/07