Back in May, the superintendent of Dolton West, a high-poverty elementary district in Chicago’s south suburbs, invited a group of educators to learn about “the next generation classroom.”

“I think it’s pretty cool,” superintendent Kevin Nohelty told them. “Way out there.”

In the vision laid out that day by a tech consultant and a sales rep from an interactive board manufacturer, the entire 1,890-student district would embrace hybrid learning. In each classroom, two or more large touch screens would allow the teacher to interact with students tuning in from home or from other classrooms. A camera mounted on the ceiling would track the teacher for those remote students.

Dolton West plans to spend the bulk of its $21 million in federal pandemic recovery money to bring a similar vision – one that melds in-person and remote learning – to the district, Nohelty told Chalkbeat. It’s a highly uncommon step for a district serving elementary students, most of whom are Black and living in poverty.

Nohelty says the hybrid learning plan will roll out next fall and make the district a national trailblazer, “unstoppable” if another pandemic or other major disruption hits.

Officials say the revamp would allow the district to proactively address teacher shortages and to rethink the school day and week, with students attending, say, three days in person and two virtually.

“The classroom would no longer be just the four walls,” Nohelty said. “You can be anywhere in the world and be able to engage with your teachers.”

Over the past year, some experts and student advocates have voiced frustration that few school districts are using pandemic relief dollars as federal education leaders urged: to boldly reimagine learning post-pandemic. Meanwhile, education tech companies are angling to capitalize on the influx of federal money by convincing school districts to double down on the technology that kept them going during COVID school shutdowns.

But for many educators, simultaneously teaching in-person and remote students was among the most challenging aspects of pandemic schooling. And online learning did not work well for many students – especially younger learners and those living in poverty.

Has Dolton hit on a solution to a slew of post-pandemic challenges — or is it setting out to address the academic fallout from the pandemic by giving students more of what contributed to that fallout in the first place?

Some experts question whether the district is giving itself enough time to pilot its plan, secure permission from the state to roll it out, and get input from families and educators.

The district, which serves the neighboring communities of Dolton and Riverdale, has not yet broadly shared its hybrid learning vision with parents and teachers beyond last spring’s focus group. The teachers union president, for one, says she only heard about the plan from a Chalkbeat reporter.

Loree Washington, a Dolton community leader and parent mentor whose son graduated from junior high in the district, said she would be skeptical about shifting any portion of the school day and school week back online without a pressing reason.

“The virtual learning environment was not successful for us — it just didn’t work,” she said. “So if you are offering more of that, what is your plan to ensure success? We know we can’t do the same thing and expect a different result because that would be insanity.”

Dolton looks to create hybrid learning plan

At Washington Elementary in Riverdale, principal Josh Markward says the pandemic pushed the district to become more tech-savvy.

Dolton spent much of the first of three federal COVID relief packages to close the digital gap, getting students computers and hotspots to connect to the internet at home. This school year, across Washington’s classrooms, tablets and headphones share desk space with textbooks.

Veteran educators such as Anita Pennington can be found at an interactive whiteboard, working on rhyming words with a pair of struggling second grade readers while their classmates do a reading comprehension exercise on their Chromebooks.

But the pandemic and the shift to remote learning also tested students in the economically distressed Chicago Southland district, where officials take pride in providing free breakfast, lunch, and dinner to every student, and in focusing on social-emotional learning and restorative justice since long before the pandemic.

Dolton, with a shrinking tax base, only receives about 70% of adequate state funding, by the state education agency’s own math. Washington and other community leaders recently joined a new statewide campaign to advocate for fully funding schools.

Citing COVID fears among families and teachers, the district remained virtual for the entire 2020-21 school year, making it a national outlier.

“Academically, (the pandemic) was tough,” Markward said. “Everyone took a big hit. Everyone was trying to figure it out, teaching on a computer screen.”

On the state’s 2022 standardized tests, 4% of Dolton students met Illinois standards in math, and 9% did in reading, both down slightly compared with before COVID. Chronic absenteeism jumped by more than 20 percentage points, to 53% of students.

After returning to full-time in-person instruction last fall, the district set out to address the damage. In a federal COVID relief spending plan submitted to the state, it said it would beef up its after-school programs and hire additional staff to help with students’ recovery, among other measures.

Then, officials shifted gears. Nohelty said he wanted to save the remaining roughly $20 million for a bolder, more comprehensive plan to rethink learning.

Nohelty says he was deeply shaken after watching the pandemic upend learning in his district — and feels it’s crucial that districts prepare for the next disruption now.

“I don’t want to go through that again and put learning on the backburner,” he said. Thanks to his hybrid plan, “We would be unstoppable — and I say that with passion.”

The hybrid model would give students who are sick, traveling, or missing a ride to school a chance to remain connected to the classroom, he said. That could be a game-changer for students with disabilities that make regular attendance challenging.

And, Nohelty says, the district would be prepared for staffing shortages, allowing educators to teach students in more than one classroom — perhaps with an aide or substitute supervising the students logging on from other classrooms.

“It’s what I would consider very cutting-edge,” Nohelty said of the district’s hybrid plan. “I do believe we are going to change the way we do learning in Southland.”

When Frank Brandolino of Joliet-based Velocita Technology came to meet with the educator focus group last May, he explained that his company has been developing a hybrid “solution” along with Nohelty and Dolton’s deputy superintendent, Sonya Whitaker. Besides the technology, the plan would also include extensive professional development, he said.

The interactive board rep demonstrated software that teachers can use on their boards that allows students to take quizzes, share photos, and “huddle” to collaborate virtually with each other. As many as 60 students can log on at one time, the sales rep noted. Teachers, meanwhile, can track whether students are actively engaging with the platform.

The portal, accessible from anywhere in the world, is the company’s “COVID child,” the rep said. Brandolino then showed a short video featuring a college History 101 class, in which four in-person and 16 virtual students collaborate on an assignment about ancient civilizations and then share their work with the class.

Teachers peppered the group with questions, some voicing enthusiasm for the portal’s features.

Experts raise questions about Dolton’s plan

Bree Dusseault, of the Center on Reinventing Public Education, says that it’s refreshing to see a district thinking about how the federal relief dollars can help reimagine learning. Overwhelmingly, districts have used the money to buttress a status quo whose inequities and limitations the pandemic underscored.

In surveys, high school students have said they want schools to look different after the pandemic, and some have voiced interest in the flexibility hybrid learning can offer, including for students juggling school with work, internships, or college-credit classes.

But, says Dusseault, remote learning was hard for younger learners. Given the planned fall of 2023 districtwide launch, a number of questions remain, Dusseault says:

Does Dolton have time to pilot this model on a small scale, then gradually roll it out based on data on student outcomes it collects along the way? How will officials reconcile the plan with state instructional time requirements and employee contract obligations? How will the district sustain the ongoing costs of the plan, including refreshing technology, once the federal money runs out?

Most importantly, how will the district ensure that students learning remotely part-time remain engaged in learning? Do all students even have a quiet, safe place to learn virtually?

Those were issues in Dolton during remote learning, when several teachers told Chalkbeat that some students joined in from noisy settings while others eventually stopped logging on.

“This district might be looking to implement a plan that’s not fully baked,” Dusseault said. “Innovation for innovation’s sake is not what we’re looking for.”

Both Dusseault and Bart Epstein, an expert at the University of Virginia and head of the nonprofit EdTech Evidence Exchange, are not aware of other districts adopting indefinite hybrid learning. There are good reasons for that, says Epstein: Expecting young students to stay home two days a week would be a hardship for parents and a challenge for teachers having to juggle both in-person and virtual learners.

“Having hybrid learning as an option for some students to use occasionally is a great idea,” he said. “I am not aware of anybody making the argument that permanent, forced hybrid learning is a net win for students.”

Dusseault stresses district officials need to be communicating about their plan with teachers and families and gathering feedback. Now.

Darlene McMillan, the head of the district’s teachers union, said she was reluctant to comment on the plan until the district spells it out publicly. She said staff vacancies are indeed an issue in Dolton. But the idea of teaching multiple classrooms using hybrid technology concerns her, and might be at odds with the district’s educator contract, she said.

Technology has powered learning in Dolton

On a recent Thursday afternoon, second grade teacher Richard Kealey stood in front of an interactive board in his classroom in Dolton’s Lincoln Elementary. He was teaching addition to the nine students in attendance that day.

A boy – dressed in the district’s uniform of white polo shirts and navy pants – had answered that 5 plus 4 equals 9. Kealey scribbled that answer onto the board with his finger and asked his students if it was correct.

“Don’t be shy, class,” he said. “Speak up!”

The students responded with a chorus of yeses. Then they put away their workbooks under their desks, donned headphones, and fired up their tablets. Kealey walked the room checking on students as they logged on to a math program called i-Ready, which offers a series of math games that grow easier or harder depending on how well users do — a program Kealey and Lincoln principal Byron Stingily credit with faster-than-projected growth in math.

Kealey estimates his students missed out on half a year of learning during the virtual stretch. A year after they returned to campus, there is still academic and social-emotional catching-up to do.

“It has been great to have students back in person,” he said. “Remote is really challenging on kids.”

During student pickup at Lincoln later that afternoon, some parents and students echoed that refrain: Technology: good. Virtual learning: hard.

Seventh grader Ja’Shawn McGee said bouncing back from remote learning has been tough. He is still trying to get back on track, especially in math and science.

“It was hard, trying to learn on a laptop,” he said. “I like being in front of a teacher.”

Eternity Lee said her son, Elijah, is also playing catch-up.

“He hated e-learning,” she said. “He missed his friends. He fell behind academically.”

She said she wants to see the district spend its federal COVID relief dollars on after-school programs and more one-on-one help with reading for her son, echoing the original spending plan the district had submitted to the state.

Nohelty says the model he envisions won’t simply reprise the virtual learning seen during the early days of the pandemic, but rather draw on its lessons to make technology work better for students going forward.

He acknowledged the district is going into uncharted territory. He is considering a site visit to high schools in California that have adopted hybrid learning. The district still must ask the state to waive some seat time requirements, step up public engagement about the plan, and work out the details of a pilot later this school year. He hopes to bring the plan to his school board in December and seek proposals from vendors next year.

Washington, the Dolton community leader who has served as a parent mentor in elementary classrooms for years, says educators need more help to catch students up academically, from tutoring to more after-school programs.

“If we’re talking about emergency funding, tell me what you’ll do to address the damage now,” she said. “What are we doing about student achievement?”

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Illinois school districts have received more than $7 billion in federal relief money to help reopen schools and ease the academic and mental health fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

But a Chalkbeat/Better Government Association analysis found that a slew of high-poverty districts across the state have spent small fractions of their relief funds, despite serving students who were especially hard hit by the pandemic. Many are in Chicago’s south suburbs, where almost a dozen districts have reported spending 15% or less of their federal dollars. Bloom Township, where 72% of almost 3,000 students are low-income, has spent only 6% of its $20 million allocation, according to state data.

Statewide, districts have spent about $2.8 billion of the total they received, as a federal fall 2024 deadline is looming.

High-poverty Illinois districts have spent a smaller portion – about 42% – of their Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund, or ESSER, allocations than wealthier districts, which have spent roughly 60%, according to the Chalkbeat/BGA analysis of state records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. These high-poverty districts received much more recovery money and have overall spent more per pupil than wealthier ones.

State officials have taken notice of the slow spending in some districts, but are not concerned.

Krish Mohip, the deputy operational education officer for the Illinois State Board of Education, said the state has reached out to some districts that have reported spending little of their allocations or haven’t yet submitted plans for the latest two of three COVID relief packages. But he said his agency is confident that — if districts aren’t spending the money briskly yet — they have solid plans to do so in the next couple of years. Spending is picking up this fall, he noted.

“With ESSER III, we still have a way to go, but we have a lot of time,” Mohip said. “We really don’t have concerns about the rate of spending right now.”

School leaders in the south suburban districts where the funds have been spent more slowly say they have confronted supply chain issues, hiring challenges, and other hurdles. Some said they have spent more briskly than state data suggests, but need to get caught up on reporting expenses.

Yet some education experts are questioning why some districts have been slower to spend their funds — emergency aid intended to help address the heightened academic and social-emotional needs of students. About 30% of Illinois students met reading state standards and about a quarter did in math this year, about 20% fewer students than in 2019, according to state data.

“If there are good ways to spend the money well right now, what are districts waiting for?” said Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. “Kids have been hurt both academically and emotionally. We want to know what they are doing now to make kids whole.”

In Chicago’s south suburbs, spending is slow

Among the districts slowest to spend COVID money are a cluster of about 15 south suburban districts, which serve overwhelmingly low-income Black and Latino student populations. Those districts have spent 14% of their federal dollars on average. That’s about $1,200 per pupil – less than half the average amount for high-poverty districts statewide.

Almost 80% of students in these south suburban districts live in poverty. About 12% of their students met state standards in reading on the 2022 state report card and roughly 7% did in math, showing marked decreases in proficiency compared with pre-pandemic.

Brookwood School District 167, a district that serves 57% low-income students, has reported spending only 7% of its $6 million — or $449,228 — as of mid-September.

Brookwood Superintendent Bethany Lindsay said delays in the supply chain have been a factor, pointing to the delay in getting four vans the district purchased to transport students to field trips and community events.

“It took a year to receive them,” she said. “So we couldn’t claim that until we received them.”

Lindsay said the district has focused on removing obstacles that impact academic, social, and emotional learning for its more than 1,000 pre-K to eighth grade students. For example, the recently purchased vans help remove transportation barriers and expose students to new experiences, she said. In Brookwood, almost 17% of students met state standards in reading, and 6% did in math on the 2022 tests.

“The pandemic really showed that vulnerable populations were going to be most impaired because they have limited access to things already,” said Lindsay.

In addition to the vans, Brookwood has spent its money to adopt a two-to-one technology initiative that guarantees students have devices both at home and at school. The district also added another social worker to each of its four schools and has built two new playgrounds.

Lindsay said the district will share updated spending figures with the state in a quarterly expenditure report due at the end of October – a report required of all districts.

In the coming years, Lindsay said, the district will build a STEM and performing arts center to increase representation in those fields and to give students a place of creative expression.

“People can experience that for 100 years,” she said. “So it really stands for something in the community.”

Other south suburban district officials had varying reasons for the slow pace of spending. Some noted that school building repair projects took awhile to get off the ground; others said they are still figuring out what learning software to buy. One district, Dolton West, is holding on to the bulk of its ESSER money to undertake an uncommon plan to embrace hybrid learning next fall. 

National experts say districts across the country have sometimes been slow to spend the federal money because they have grappled with how to make the best use of such a large windfall.

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Many districts worry about having to lay off new hires and cut new programs when the one-time money runs out. Hiring shortages and supply chain issues have crimped some plans to spend the money, and these issues can be tougher for high-poverty districts, said Marguerite Roza of the Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University.

West Harvey-Dixmoor, where almost every student is low-income, has reported spending 13% of its federal COVID recovery money as of mid-September, according to state data. The district, where 7% of students met state standards in reading on the 2022 test and 3.5% did in math, earmarked a portion of the latest COVID package to address learning loss as required by the feds.

But the two interim superintendents, who stepped in at the end of 2021, made a plan to spend most of the district’s almost $17 million allocation on building projects.

“Our facilities haven’t actually been updated in close to 20 years,” said interim superintendent Creg Williams.

Williams said it took a while for the district to line up contractors and bring in materials and equipment to ramp up these projects, which include removing asbestos, upgrading ventilation systems and a school cafeteria, and refreshing flooring, doors, and student lockers. He said the district also launched an extended day learning program this school year and hired a dean of students and an instructional coach, and fall reporting to the state will reflect much additional spending.

In Hazel Crest, superintendent Kenneth Spells also said the district has spent more briskly than the 9% of the district’s $8.3 million allocation that state data shows, though he could not provide up-to-date amounts for how much his district has actually spent. In addition to spending on COVID mitigation measures, Spells said, the district has hired additional teachers so it could staff co-educators in some larger classrooms. It also paid existing staff to offer Saturday school for students needing additional academic help.

The district, where 99% of students are low-income, saw reading proficiency dip to about 9% in reading and 3.5% in math during the pandemic.

“We’re seeing some progress,” he said, “but it’s still early in the game.”

“Story is still being written”

The data obtained by Chalkbeat and the BGA shows all federal COVID relief expenditures reported by Illinois’ roughly 850 districts by mid-September, and is broken into five broad categories: capital projects, supplies and materials, employee salaries, benefits, and outside vendor contracts.

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High-poverty districts have been more likely to put these federal funds into school facilities while wealthier ones have steered more dollars toward supplies and salaries.

Chicago has been an outlier among high-poverty districts in spending a large portion of its federal COVID relief dollars on salaries and benefits, largely for positions that already existed when the pandemic hit.

But beyond the broad categories, the state data offers little detail on what exactly districts bought with the money. And it doesn’t answer key questions, such as whether salary and benefit spending is for new or existing employees.

Jianan Shi, executive director of the parent advocacy group Raise Your Hand, says parents have generally wanted to see more urgency – and transparency – from districts in spending the federal money.

“We have seen districts small and large fail to be transparent and to include parents in decision-making,” he said.

What Shi consistently hears parents say they want to see: more outreach to reconnect with students and families who disengaged from learning during the pandemic; more staff in schools to support students; after-school programs; mental health support and tutoring.

Spending on facilities allows districts to use the one-time money without setting themselves up for layoffs or program cuts down the road, and some research has suggested a link between better school buildings and student learning.

Still, Shi said, “I don’t remember many parents saying, ‘Let’s just fix this issue in my facility with this money.’ We forget we are talking about students here.”

Mohip, of the state board of education, said his agency monitors the expenditure data districts submit closely, and staff has reached out to some districts to see if they need any help or guidance. He notes districts overwhelmingly met a recent federal deadline to spend the first wave of pandemic recovery money aimed at schools.

Some districts are holding on to the money for good reasons, he said. For instance, a district might have bought computers and other technology early in the pandemic, and might be waiting until closer to the end of the equipment’s life cycle to replace it. Others might still be working to fill new positions.

Ultimately, the money will make a difference, he said. “As of right now, that story is still being written. What we do know is that the money was needed and helpful at a time of distress.”

Other districts have spent COVID money briskly

Generally, the Chalkbeat/BGA analysis found, wealthier districts have spent their smaller funds briskly.

New Trier Township, for instance, has already burned through its $1.2 million allocation. The affluent school district in Chicago’s north suburbs serving nearly 3,850 students used the money for protective equipment, COVID testing, and other reopening expenditures. It also added two instructional assistants focused on math instruction and an academic interventionist.

But some high-poverty districts have also already spent most of the federal dollars.

Laraway, a small district about an hour southwest of downtown Chicago, has spent almost 80% of its $1.8 million allocation.

Superintendent Joe Salmieri said the district put some of the money toward hiring a teaching assistant for each elementary classroom to better target students who need more help.

“It was full-court press — all hands on deck,” said Salmieri. “Time is of the essence to address the negative effects of the pandemic.”

Initially, Salmieri said, the district struggled to recruit candidates, so it increased the pay and was able to fill most of the jobs this past summer.

The district, where almost all 450 students qualify for subsidized lunch, has also updated its math curriculum and ramped up after-school and summer programming. Salmieri said academic recovery is likely a “three-year journey.”

In Pembroke, an elementary district that serves 173 students, including 91% living in poverty, has spent 90% of the $3.4 million it received. Most of the money has been used on upgrading the single school building and tackling the pandemic’s academic damage, said Superintendent Nicole Terrell-Smith.

On the 2022 state tests, about 10% of students scored proficient in reading, and almost 11% did in math. To address this, Terrell-Smith has proposed that all students receive a personalized learning plan to help teachers tailor instruction to their academic needs. Currently, staff are getting professional development to help them to create these plans for the 2023-24 school year.

“I don’t want to have a beautiful facility but students who can’t read,” said Terrell-Smith.

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The Chicago Public Schools’ in-house watchdog is reviewing a $1.6 million deal to buy used computers from a campaign donor to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, who personally vouched for the company’s CEO as he sought to provide devices to the district last spring.

The district’s Office of Inspector General opened the investigation after a report by Chalkbeat Chicago and the Better Government Association this week raised questions about the purchase.

The district bought laptops and older-model tablets from Meeting Tomorrow last spring as part of a larger push to quickly get devices into the hands of students who needed them for remote learning amid national computer shortages. The company’s CEO, who had contributed $30,000 to Lightfoot’s 2019 election bid, reached out to her office, which forwarded his email to the district. Lightfoot also wrote schools chief Janice Jackson to put in a good word.

Some of the computers did not meet the district’s technical standards, and a small number were not equipped for virtual learning. About a third have remained in a district warehouse even as the district has since bought more devices from its established vendors.

District officials said Meeting Tomorrow was the only local vendor with readily available computers at a time when the district faced an urgent need to help low-income students access remote learning. They said the vast majority of devices were well equipped for that purpose.

The inspector general’s office will look into how the sale came about and whether the district got a reasonable deal during a challenging time to secure computers for students, Inspector General Will Fletcher said.

“We want to determine whether the prices were fair and whether CPS appropriately evaluated its need for devices and the opportunity to purchase them from Meeting Tomorrow,” Fletcher said.

He said the investigation might take several months.

Earlier this week, Lightfoot said she forwarded the note from Meeting Tomorrow President Mark Aistrope at a time when “everybody and their brother” were approaching her office with offers to help with the city’s coronavirus response. She said she had simply wanted to steer the offer to the right people.

“He reached out and said ‘Hey, I know that CPS is struggling to find devices; can I be helpful?’ So I passed on that email,” she said when asked about the Chalkbeat/BGA report after an event to administer the city’s first coronavirus vaccines to healthcare workers.

“I have no regrets about forwarding that information on,” she added.

Lightfoot said she assumes the district properly vetted the purchase.

Kiannah Sepeda-Miller of the Better Government Association contributed to this report.

A campaign contributor to Mayor Lori Lightfoot landed a $1.6 million no-bid deal with Chicago Public Schools after the mayor personally vouched for him, then delivered computers that in some cases didn’t meet district purchasing standards or work for virtual learning.

District officials said they bought the used computers in April to meet an “urgent need” as schools scrambled to get devices to students and the district’s traditional vendors faced backlogs. Yet more than a third are still sitting in a district warehouse as backups, a Chalkbeat/Better Government Association investigation has found.

Mark Aistrope, the CEO of Chicago-based Meeting Tomorrow, who contributed nearly $30,000 to Lightfoot’s mayoral bid, emailed the mayor in late March, saying his company could quickly provide tens of thousands of computers to the school district when it needed them most. 

Early the next morning, Lightfoot wrote CPS CEO Janice Jackson to put in a good word.

“Mark is a really good guy,” Lightfoot wrote atop Aistrope’s email, which she forwarded to Jackson. “I met him during my campaign and he is truly genuine and very generous. If he can help you, he will.”

A little more than three weeks later, the school district reached the deal with Aistrope’s computer rental firm. Officials acknowledged erring by ordering and distributing a small number of laptops without cameras — an oversight discovered after a Chalkbeat/BGA inquiry that CPS officials said they are now working to correct.

The purchase was a small part of a massive $31 million effort to quickly hand out tens of thousands of laptops and tablets for online learning after the coronavirus shut down school buildings and the sudden demand for computers led to severe shortages. CPS said the overwhelming majority of the Meeting Tomorrow devices were in good condition, and officials at some charter schools said they helped alleviate a pressing need and worked well.

Still, the Meeting Tomorrow deal raises questions about Chicago’s high-stakes school technology expansion, unfolding as the district’s governing board allows millions to be spent without prior board vetting or competitive bidding in order to respond nimbly to a once-in-a-century pandemic. The district has used federal emergency dollars to partly fund its response, and a second stimulus package for schools may come in 2021.   

The CPS-Meeting Tomorrow deal also offers a glimpse into the relationship between Lightfoot’s office — which has steered some coronavirus-response business to companies with political ties — and the district, where Jackson serves at the mayor’s pleasure.

Lightfoot declined to be interviewed for this report. In an emailed statement, her office defended the all-hands-on-deck response to the COVID-19 crisis.

“People of good will across Chicago have reached out to be helpful,” the statement said, “and the city has pointed them in the right direction — including to Chicago Public Schools in order to support our students.”

The statement did not address why Lightfoot emailed the head of CPS on behalf of a campaign contributor. The deal that followed the mayor’s email to Jackson ultimately helped Aistrope’s company ward off layoffs and find its footing amid the pandemic, he has said in an interview.

An expert said the transaction deserves further investigation. 

“In my experience, emergency purchases pose a higher risk that the district’s going to pay a higher price for inferior product,” said James Sullivan, who was the CPS inspector general until 2014 when he retired from the job. “Based on the facts I know, I think this purchase warrants a deeper review.”

Reaching out to Lightfoot 

In an August interview, Aistrope told Chalkbeat and the BGA that Meeting Tomorrow was decimated by event cancellations last spring when the coronavirus first hit. Then, he said, he saw a media report about CPS’ efforts to buy devices for students. 

At the time, the district was grappling with the abrupt shift to remote learning as school buildings statewide closed. CPS scrambled to bridge the gaping digital divide in the city, where many low-income students did not have access to the technology suddenly needed to log on to school.

Aistrope had contributed nearly $30,000 in cash and in-kind donations to Lightfoot, who also visited his company’s headquarters on Election Day in February 2019, photos posted on Meeting Tomorrow’s Facebook page show. He said he never considered using the connection to win city business.

“I never, ever wanted to take advantage of this or have the appearance of this,” he said in August. “My expectation was never to do business with the city.”

Aistrope said that when he saw the school district needed computers, he contacted a deputy mayor, Samir Mayekar, whom he said he met through a mayoral initiative to spur entrepreneurship and philanthropy in under-resourced parts of the city.

“I had reached out to Samir, and they copied his chief of staff, and they quickly, the same night, forwarded it over to whoever the secretary of education person in the mayor’s administration (is), who then immediately forwarded it over to … the COO (chief operating officer) of Chicago Public Schools, and the CIO (chief information officer),” Aistrope said in August.

But emails later obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show Aistrope actually contacted Lightfoot directly.

Late in the evening on March 30, Aistrope wrote the mayor to say he had seen news about the district handing out devices to students and said his company had more than 12,000 laptops and iPads in its Albany Park warehouse.

“And I believe I can get 30,000 ChromeBooks and approx 3,000-4,000 additional PC laptops within the next 7 days,” he wrote, adding that he could arrange to have them shipped directly to students’ homes. “Please let me know if I can help with this or anything else during this time.”

Mayekar and Lightfoot’s chief of staff, Maurice Classen, were copied on the note from Aistrope.

“Mark, you’re always so incredible!” Lightfoot responded less than an hour later. “I cannot thank you enough. You’re the best.”

Early the next morning, Lightfoot forwarded the email thread to Jackson topped by her message of support for Aistrope.

After Chalkbeat and the BGA obtained the emails and reached back out to Aistrope about the discrepancy, Aistrope declined a follow-up interview and instead responded to questions in a statement through a public relations consultant.

Asked why he had not mentioned his contact with Lightfoot in an earlier interview, Aistrope’s statement said: “I didn’t know who would respond the fastest, and knowing that time was of the essence, I was just trying to get someone’s attention so we could help.”

In addition to reaching out to Jackson, Lightfoot also followed up with Aistrope by copying Sybil Madison, deputy mayor for education and human services, on the emails. She asked Madison to connect Aistrope with district officials, which records show Madison did. 

After Jackson received the email thread from the mayor, Jackson forwarded Lightfoot’s recommendation to key members of her staff: Chief Information Officer Phillip DiBartolo, Chief Operating Officer Arnaldo Rivera, and Chief Education Officer LaTanya McDade.

Officials, including DiBartolo’s second-in-command, Edward Wagner, exchanged six  brief emails that day, but the details of those conversations remain secret because CPS redacted them, citing an exemption in state law for “predecisional intra-office communications.”

By that afternoon, Aistrope was meeting online with DiBartolo and Rivera, according to records and interviews.

Several weeks later, the district bought 5,066 used devices from the company, district purchase orders show.

Don’t see the graphic? Click here.       

In written responses to questions, CPS spokesman James Gherardi said the district had ordered as many computers from its established suppliers, CDW and Apple, as they could deliver on a tight timeline before turning to “secondary partners.”

“Given the urgent need and the lack of available devices through the normal supply chain, the district sought additional devices to bridge the gap that could be delivered in a timely manner,” Gherardi said in the response.

He said the mayor’s email did not factor in the decision. Meeting Tomorrow was the “only local vendor with readily available devices,” and its ability to help tag and deliver those laptops and tablets helped enormously, he said.

Gherardi’s written responses also said the school board’s emergency COVID-19 spending authorization, in which the board allowed the district to spend up to $75 million without prior board approval, let it cut the deal without a written contract or agreement.

Several technology experts who reviewed the district’s technology purchases earlier this year said the district generally got good prices and a sensible selection of computers.

But two of the experts interviewed for the earlier Chalkbeat/BGA report — Douglas Levin, president of EdTech Strategies, which consults with school districts, and Richard Culatta of the nonprofit International Society for Technology in Education — raised questions about the Meeting Tomorrow deal.

Both experts stressed the unprecedented challenges posed by the pandemic, but said it’s unusual to see a district buying a mishmash of roughly a dozen device models. Such a purchase can complicate maintenance and managing software applications, they said.

The experts also said the age of some of the devices — including 2017 iPads and an iPad Air model retired by Apple three years ago — means they are close to the end of their life cycles.

While the company did not charge excessively for the computers, it does not appear to have offered the district bargain prices. It charged CPS $300 for three-year-old iPads, for example, slightly more than what the district paid Apple for new iPads, district purchase orders show.

It’s hard to make direct comparisons because the older iPads had cell service capacity, which typically drives prices up. Meeting Tomorrow’s ability to supply the machines quickly might have also fetched a premium amid the supply challenges, the experts said.

One expert, Hal Friedlander, head of the nonprofit Technology for Education Consortium and a former chief information officer of New York City public schools, said the deal seemed like a creative approach to circumventing the device shortages, and the computers should work well to meet student needs.

Not all the devices from Meeting Tomorrow met the district’s specifications.

Levin noted the 2017 iPads and the iPad Air devices sold by Aistrope are older models than the district requires. He said many of the laptops use older storage technology, which could make the computers run more slowly.

Records show DiBartolo emailed the CPS specifications to Aistrope before their virtual meeting. Gherardi said a majority of the computers CPS purchased from Aistrope were fully equipped and met technical specifications. 

Accolades and complaints

In CPS’ written responses, Gherardi acknowledged the district erred by ordering a small number of laptops without cameras: 120 out of the more than 5,000 computers.

All those 120 devices went to the Englewood campus of charter school Urban Prep, the district said. Officials said they only discovered that error after Chalkbeat and the BGA raised questions about the purchase. CPS said it would replace the laptops before winter break. Urban Prep did not respond to requests for comment. 

But one other charter network told Chalkbeat and the BGA about a similar issue with some of the laptops it received.

Three South Side campuses of Chicago International Charter School received 620 Meeting Tomorrow devices from CPS, records show. A spokeswoman for the network said about half of the roughly 200 laptops the school received from CPS did not have working cameras or microphones, and families returned some of the iPads because of faulty batteries or speakers.

The spokeswoman said the network has since received hundreds of new Chromebooks from the district, which has “more than made up” for the issues with the used devices.

Although CPS did not buy a warranty from Meeting Tomorrow, Aistrope said in his recent statement that the company has been troubleshooting issues when schools reach out. He said some problems are inevitable and that his company is addressing them “without charges or fees.” He also said his company replaced the devices’ missing webcams “immediately.” 

The district said it was not aware of Meeting Tomorrow’s maintenance or troubleshooting efforts. 

A number of district-run schools, including Zapata Academy, Willa Cather Elementary, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, Galileo Scholastic Academy, and Haley Elementary, also received shipments of anywhere from about a dozen to 55 Meeting Tomorrow devices. Some were given to teachers and some to students.

Another 1,750 went to a warehouse, according to a CPS log obtained by Chalkbeat and the BGA that details where new technology was distributed. Gherardi said all but 30 of those devices remain in the warehouse because they were “not needed for immediate use” and will be used to replace broken computers.

North Lawndale College Prep, which received 180 tablets from Meeting Tomorrow, is also keeping them as backups since by the time it received them it had lined up a private donation that enabled the school to buy new Chromebooks, officials at the school said.

Some charter school officials who received Meeting Tomorrow devices said the shipments helped during a challenging time, and the computers have worked well for students.

At Moving Everest, on the West Side, Michael Rogers, founder and executive director, said the 65 older-model iPads the school received are at an age when the school would normally replace them with new ones. Nevertheless, he said, the iPads, along with new Chromebooks the district provided, have had few issues.

Instituto Health Sciences Career Academy on the Southwest Side received 300 Lenovo ThinkPads from the district in June, Principal Elias Alonzo said. All 300 are being used by students this year without issues, he said.

Still, Sullivan, the district’s former inspector general, said the deal with Meeting Tomorrow raises questions: Did the district solicit offers from other vendors and sufficiently test the market before buying from the company? Did it pay reasonable prices? And did it have the option to return machines it has not used?

Exactly what role Lightfoot’s email to the district might have played can be tough to determine, he said. 

“There are going to be a lot of CPS vendors that made contributions — that’s just the nature of the game,” Sullivan said.

Un contribuyente de la campaña de la alcaldesa Lori Lightfoot consiguió un contrato de 1.6 millones de dólares, sin licitación, con las escuelas públicas de Chicago, después de que la alcaldesa lo avalara personalmente y entregara computadoras que en algunos casos no cumplían con los estándares de compra del distrito o no funcionaban para el aprendizaje virtual.

Los funcionarios del distrito dijeron que compraron las computadoras usadas en abril para satisfacer una “necesidad urgente”, debido a que las escuelas luchaban por hacer llegar los equipos a los estudiantes y los vendedores tradicionales del distrito presentaban contratiempos. Sin embargo, hay más de un tercio en un almacén distrital que todavía están guardados como reserva, según una investigación de Chalkbeat/Better Government Association.

Mark Aistrope, el director ejecutivo de Meeting Tomorrow, con sede en Chicago, empresa que contribuyó con casi 30,000 dólares a la campaña de Lightfoot para la alcaldía, envió un correo electrónico a la alcaldesa a finales de marzo, diciendo que su empresa podría proporcionar rápidamente decenas de miles de computadoras al distrito escolar, cuando éste más las necesitara.

Temprano, a la mañana siguiente, Lightfoot le escribió a la CEO de CPS, Janice Jackson, para hablarle bien de la empresa..

“Mark es un muy buen tipo”, comentó Lightfoot en el correo electrónico que envió a Jackson. “Lo conocí durante mi campaña, es verdaderamente honesto y muy generoso. Si puede ayudarte, lo hará.”

Un poco después de tres semanas, el distrito escolar cerró un contrato con la empresa de alquiler de computadoras de Aistrope. Los funcionarios reconocieron haber cometido un error al ordenar y distribuir un pequeño número de computadoras portátiles sin cámaras – un descuido detectado tras una investigación de Chalkbeat/BGA que los funcionarios del CPS dijeron que están tratando de corregir.

La compra fue una pequeña parte de un esfuerzo masivo de 31 millones de dólares para distribuir rápidamente decenas de miles de computadoras portátiles y tabletas para el aprendizaje en línea, luego de que el coronavirus cerrara las escuelas y la repentina demanda de computadoras provocara una grave escasez. CPS dijo que la gran mayoría de los equipos de Meeting Tomorrow estaban en buenas condiciones, y los funcionarios de algunas escuelas chárter dijeron que ayudaron a aliviar una necesidad apremiante y funcionaron bien.

Sin embargo, el contrato de Meeting Tomorrow plantea preguntas sobre la expansión de la tecnología escolar de alto riesgo de Chicago, que se desarrolla a medida que la junta de gobierno del distrito permite que se gasten millones de dólares sin una investigación previa de la junta o una licitación competitiva para responder ágilmente a una pandemia que ocurre una vez en un siglo. El distrito ha utilizado el dinero de la emergencia federal para financiar parcialmente su respuesta, y un segundo paquete de estímulo para las escuelas puede llegar el próximo año.

El contrato de CPS-Meeting Tomorrow, también permite visualizar la relación entre la oficina de Lightfoot, que ha dirigido algunos negocios de respuesta al coronavirus a empresas con vínculos políticos, y el distrito, donde Jackson trabaja a complacencia de la alcaldesa.

Lightfoot se negó a dar una entrevista para este reportaje. En un comunicado enviado por correo electrónico, su oficina defendió la respuesta a la crisis del COVID-19.

“La gente de buena voluntad de toda la ciudad de Chicago ha tendido la mano para ayudar”, decía el comunicado, “y la ciudad les ha señalado la dirección correcta, incluidas las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago, para apoyar a nuestros estudiantes.”

El comunicado no especificaba por qué Lightfoot envió un correo electrónico a la cabeza principal de CPS en nombre de un contribuyente de su campaña. El contrato que dio origen al correo electrónico de la alcaldesa a Jackson ayudó sin duda a la empresa de Aistrope a evitar los despidos y a encontrar un equilibrio en medio de la pandemia, dijo en una entrevista.

Un experto dijo que la operación merece ser investigada más a fondo.

“En mi experiencia, las compras de emergencia conllevan un mayor riesgo de que el distrito pague un precio más alto por un producto inferior”, dijo James Sullivan, quien fue inspector general de CPS hasta el 2014, cuando se retiró definitivamente. “Basándome en los hechos que conozco, creo que esta compra merece una revisión más profunda.”

Contactando a Lightfoot

En una entrevista realizada en agosto, Aistrope dijo a Chalkbeat y a BGA que su compañía, Meeting Tomorrow, fue diezmada debido a la cancelación de eventos la primavera pasada cuando el coronavirus atacó por primera vez. Luego, agregó, que vio un reportaje en los medios sobre los esfuerzos de CPS para comprar equipos para los estudiantes.

En ese momento, el distrito estaba lidiando con el abrupto cambio hacia el aprendizaje virtual cuando los planteles en todo el estado cerraron. CPS se esforzó por cerrar la brecha digital en la ciudad, donde muchos estudiantes de bajos recursos no tenían acceso a la tecnología que de repente se necesitaba para conectarse con su escuela.

Aistrope había contribuido con casi 30,000 dólares en efectivo y donaciones en especie a Lightfoot, quien también visitó la sede de su empresa el día de las elecciones en febrero de 2019, como muestran las fotos publicadas en la página de Facebook de Meeting Tomorrow. Dijo que nunca consideró usar ese contacto para hacer negocios con la ciudad.

“Nunca, nunca quise aprovecharme de esto o dar esa impresión”, dijo en agosto. “Mi objetivo nunca fue hacer negocios con la ciudad.”

Aistrope dijo que cuando vio que el distrito escolar necesitaba computadoras, se puso en contacto con el vicealcalde, Samir Mayekar, a quien dijo haber conocido a través de una iniciativa de la alcaldía para estimular el empresariado y la filantropía en las áreas de escasos recursos de la ciudad.

“Me comuniqué con Samir, y ellos copiaron a su jefe de personal, y rápidamente, la misma noche, lo remitieron a quien fuese el secretario de educación en la administración de la alcaldía, quien inmediatamente lo remitió a … el jefe de operaciones (COO) de las Escuelas Públicas de Chicago, y al jefe de información (CIO)”, dijo Aistrope en agosto.

Pero, según los correos electrónicos obtenidos más tarde, y de acuerdo con la Ley de Acceso a la Información, muestran que Aistrope se puso en contacto con Lightfoot, directamente.

El 30 de marzo por la tarde, Aistrope le escribió a la alcaldesa para contarle que había visto noticias del distrito repartiendo equipos a los estudiantes y dijo que su compañía tenía más de 12,000 mil computadoras portátiles y iPads en su almacén de Albany Park.

“Y creo que puedo conseguir 30,000 ChromeBooks y aproximadamente de 3,000 a 4,000 computadoras portátiles adicionales en los próximos 7 días”, escribió, agregando que podía hacer arreglos para enviarlos directamente a las casas de los estudiantes. “Por favor, avíseme si puedo ayudar con esto o cualquier otra cosa durante este momento.”

El jefe de personal de Mayekar y Lightfoot, Maurice Classen, fue incluído en el correo de Aistrope.

“¡Mark, siempre tan increíble!” Lightfoot respondió menos de una hora después. “No puedo estar más agradecida. Eres lo máximo.”

Temprano a la mañana siguiente, Lightfoot reenvió el correo electrónico a Jackson, acompañado de su apoyo a Aistrope.    

Después que Chalkbeat y BGA consiguieron los correos electrónicos y se pusieron en contacto con Aistrope para hablar de la discrepancia, Aistrope declinó una entrevista de seguimiento y en su lugar respondió a las preguntas en una declaración a través de un consultor de relaciones públicas.

Cuando se le preguntó por qué no había mencionado su comunicación con Lightfoot en una entrevista anterior, la respuesta de Aistrope fue: “No sabía quién respondería más rápido, y sabiendo que el tiempo era apremiante, sólo intentaba que alguien me escuchara para poder ayudar.”

Además de ponerse en contacto con Jackson, Lightfoot también dio seguimiento a Aistrope, incluyendo a Sybil Madison, vicealcaldesa de educación y servicios humanos, en los correos electrónicos. Le pidió a Madison que conectara a Aistrope con los funcionarios del distrito, lo cual consta en los registros, que Madison sí lo hizo.

Después de que Jackson recibiera el hilo del correo electrónico de la alcaldesa, reenvió la recomendación de Lightfoot a miembros clave de su personal: el Jefe de Información Phillip DiBartolo, el Jefe de Operaciones Arnaldo Rivera, y la Jefa de Educación LaTanya McDade.

Los funcionarios, incluyendo el segundo al mando de DiBartolo, Edward Wagner, intercambiaron seis breves correos electrónicos ese día, no obstante, los detalles de esas conversaciones permanecen en secreto porque fue CPS quien las redactó, citando una exención en la ley estatal para “comunicaciones internas predeterminadas.”

Esa tarde, Aistrope se reunía en línea con DiBartolo y Rivera, según los registros y entrevistas.

Varias semanas después, el distrito compró 5,066 equipos usados a la compañía, según reportan las órdenes de compra.

En respuestas escritas a las preguntas, el vocero de CPS, James Gherardi, dijo que el distrito había ordenado el mayor número de computadoras a sus proveedores establecidos, CDW y Apple, como pudieran entregar en un plazo ajustado antes de recurrir a “socios secundarios.

“Dada la situación de necesidad urgente y la falta de equipos disponibles a través de la cadena de suministro normal, el distrito buscó equipos adicionales para cerrar la brecha que pudieran ser entregados de manera oportuna”, dijo Gherardi en su respuesta.

Afirmó que el correo electrónico de la alcaldesa no influyó en la decisión. Meeting Tomorrow era el “único proveedor local con equipos disponibles”, y su capacidad para ayudar a etiquetar y entregar esas computadoras portátiles y tabletas ayudó enormemente, dijo.

Las respuestas por escrito de Gherardi también afirmaban que la autorización de gastos de emergencia de la junta escolar COVID-19, en la que ésta permitía al distrito gastar hasta 75 millones de dólares sin la aprobación previa de la junta, le permitía cerrar la compra sin un contrato o acuerdo por escrito.

Varios expertos en tecnología que revisaron las compras del distrito a principios de este año dijeron que generalmente [el distrito] consigue buenos precios y una selección razonable de computadoras.

Pero dos de los expertos entrevistados anteriormente para el reportaje de Chalkbeat/BGA – Douglas Levin, presidente de EdTech Strategies, consultor de los distritos escolares, y Richard Culatta de la Sociedad Internacional de Tecnología en la Educación, sin fines de lucro – cuestionaron la compraventa de Meeting Tomorrow.

Ambos expertos destacaron los desafíos sin precedentes que representa la pandemia, pero dijeron que es inusual ver a un distrito comprar una mezcla de aproximadamente una docena de modelos de equipos. Tal compra puede complicar el mantenimiento y la administración de las aplicaciones de software, dijeron.

Los expertos, también afirmaron, que la antigüedad de algunos de los equipos – incluyendo el iPad 2017 y un modelo de iPad Air retirado por la compañía Apple hace tres años – significa que están cerca del final de su ciclo de vida.

Aunque la compañía no cobró excesivamente por las computadoras, no parece haber ofrecido precios especiales al distrito. Cobró 300 dólares por iPads de tres años de fabricación, por ejemplo, un poco más de lo que el distrito pagó a la compañía Apple por los nuevos iPads, según muestran las órdenes de compra del distrito.

Es difícil hacer comparaciones directas porque los iPads antiguos tenían capacidad de servicio celular, lo que típicamente hace subir los precios. La capacidad de Meeting Tomorrow para suministrar las computadoras rápidamente también podría haber sido un factor importante en medio de los desafíos de la oferta, dijeron los expertos.

Según Hal Friedlander, director del Consorcio de Tecnología para la Educación, una organización sin fines de lucro, y ex jefe de información de las escuelas públicas de la ciudad de Nueva York, el contrato parece ser un método creativo para evitar la escasez de equipos, y las computadoras deberían funcionar bien para satisfacer las necesidades de los estudiantes.

No todos los equipos de Meeting Tomorrow cumplían con las especificaciones del distrito.

Levin señaló que los iPads 2017 y los equipos iPad Air vendidos por Aistrope son modelos más antiguos de lo que el distrito requiere. Dijo que muchas de las computadoras portátiles usan tecnología de almacenamiento más antigua, lo que podría hacer que las computadoras se vuelvan más lentas.

Los registros muestran que DiBartolo envió por correo electrónico las especificaciones de CPS a Aistrope antes de su reunión virtual. Gherardi dijo que la mayoría de las computadoras que CPS compró a Aistrope estaban completamente equipadas y cumplían con las especificaciones técnicas.

Reconocimientos y quejas

En las respuestas por escrito de CPS, Gherardi admitió que el distrito se equivocó al pedir un pequeño número de computadoras portátiles sin cámaras: 120 de las más de 5,000 adquiridas.

Esos 120 equipos se enviaron al campus de Englewood de la escuela chárter Urban Prep, dijo el distrito. Los funcionarios dijeron que descubrieron ese error después de que Chalkbeat y BGA plantearan preguntas sobre la compra. CPS dijo que reemplazaría las computadoras portátiles antes de las vacaciones de invierno. Urban Prep no respondió a las solicitudes para sus comentarios.

Pero otra red de escuela chárter explicó a Chalkbeat y a BGA acerca de un problema similar con algunas de las computadoras portátiles que recibió.

Tres campus del sur de la Escuela Internacional Chárter de Chicago recibieron 620 equipos “Meeting Tomorrow” provenientes de CPS, según los registros. Una vocera de la red dijo que cerca de la mitad de las 200 computadoras portátiles que la escuela recibió de CPS no tenían cámaras o micrófonos que funcionaran, y que las familias devolvieron algunos de los iPads debido a baterías o bocinas defectuosas.

La vocera dijo que la red ha recibido desde entonces cientos de nuevos Chromebooks del distrito, que ha “compensado con creces” los problemas con los equipos usados.

Aunque CPS no compró una garantía a Meeting Tomorrow, Aistrope dijo en una reciente declaración que su compañía ha estado resolviendo problemas cuando las escuelas los contactan. Dijo que algunos son inevitables y que su compañía los está abordando “sin cargos ni honorarios”. También agregó que su compañía reemplazó las cámaras web que faltaban en los equipos “inmediatamente.”

El distrito dijo que no estaba al tanto del mantenimiento de Meeting Tomorrow o de los esfuerzos de resolución de problemas.

Un número de escuelas del distrito, incluyendo la Academia Zapata, Willa Cather Elementary, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. College Preparatory High School, Galileo Scholastic Academy, y Haley Elementary, también recibieron envíos de entre una docena a 55 equipos de Meeting Tomorrow. Algunos fueron entregados a profesores y otros a estudiantes.

Otros 1,750 han sido enviados a un almacén, según un registro de CPS obtenido por Chalkbeat y BGA que detalla dónde se distribuyó la nueva tecnología. Gherardi dijo que todos excepto 30 de esos equipos permanecen en el almacén porque “no se necesitaban para uso inmediato” y serán utilizados para reemplazar computadoras arruinadas.

North Lawndale College Prep, que recibió 180 tabletas de Meeting Tomorrow, también las guarda como reserva, dado que para cuando las recibió había conseguido una donación privada que permitió a la escuela comprar nuevos Chromebooks, dijeron las autoridades de la escuela.

Algunos funcionarios de escuelas chárter que recibieron los equipos de Meeting Tomorrow dijeron que los envíos ayudaron durante un tiempo difícil, y que las computadoras han funcionado bien para los estudiantes.

En Moving Everest, en el West Side, Michael Rogers, fundador y director ejecutivo, dijo que los 65 modelos antiguos de iPads que recibió la escuela están en condiciones de ser reemplazados por otros nuevos. Sin embargo, dijo, los iPads, junto con los nuevos Chromebooks que el distrito proporcionó, han tenido pocos problemas.

La Academia de Carreras de Ciencias de la Salud del suroeste de Chicago recibió 300 Lenovo ThinkPads del distrito, en junio, dijo el director Elías Alonzo. Los 300 equipos están siendo utilizados por los estudiantes este año sin problemas, agregó.

Aún así, Sullivan, el ex – inspector general del distrito, dijo que el contrato con Meeting Tomorrow genera algunas preguntas: ¿El distrito solicitó ofertas de otros vendedores e hizo suficientemente ofertas de mercado antes de hacer la compra a la compañía? ¿Pagó precios razonables? ¿Y, tuvo la opción de devolver las unidades que no ha utilizado?

Exactamente qué papel pudo haber jugado el correo electrónico de Lightfoot en el distrito, es difícil de determinar, dijo.

“Va a haber muchos proveedores de CPS que hicieron contribuciones, esa es la naturaleza del juego”, dijo Sullivan.

The coronavirus pandemic paralyzed Mark Aistrope’s company renting out technology for business conferences. 

Then, he saw an opportunity: His company was sitting on a large fleet of laptops and iPads just as the Chicago school district needed thousands of devices after the outbreak abruptly shifted learning online.

Aistrope, the CEO of Chicago-based Meeting Tomorrow and a campaign contributor to Mayor Lori Lightfoot, reached out to her office in late March. The next day, he said, he was on a video call with top Chicago school district officials — the first step before sealing a more than $1.6 million deal to buy used laptops and older-model iPads from Aistrope’s firm.

Like school districts across Illinois and the nation, Chicago set out to rapidly build up its technology arsenal under extremely trying circumstances. It ran into major supply issues, entrenched disparities in broadband access in the city, and an aging pre-pandemic fleet of devices. At a price of $30 million through July, Chicago’s push to get technology to students was a herculean lift; the district largely leaned on long-time suppliers and got reasonable prices.

But an analysis by Chalkbeat Chicago and the Better Government Association of spring and summer purchase orders as well as interviews with technology experts, district leaders, and families also shows the district placed some device orders later than other large Illinois districts, left some families grappling with slower or malfunctioning devices from its stock and, in the case of the Meeting Tomorrow purchase, settled for buying used, older devices.

Thrust almost overnight into the role of technology hubs, Chicago and other school districts across the state now face ongoing costs and responsibilities — from repairing damaged machines to training teachers — at a time when the country appears poised for extreme financial uncertainty. How they confront the task presents a major new test as Chromebooks and iPads have become as essential school supplies in 2020 as textbooks, a comparison recently made by Chicago schools chief Janice Jackson.

“The way we manage IT in school districts still isn’t particularly mature,” said Douglas Levin, president of EdTech Strategies, which consults with school districts. “When we have money, we’ll go out and buy the tools we want. But districts can be under-resourced to manage these purchases.”

Chicago school leaders say they are proud of the district’s response to the pandemic — and are prepared for an all-virtual start to the coming school year.

“COVID-19 really created nothing short of a perfect storm for us,” said Phillip DiBartolo, Chicago’s chief information officer, adding, “At the end of the day, I was perfectly satisfied with the effort and level of coordination.”

‘No stone unturned’

While Chicago ran up against major demand for devices last spring, the district was able to turn to two heavy hitters with whom it had signed multimillion-dollar contracts and forged relationships in recent years: Apple and CDW-G, which is Chicago’s middleman for Dell laptops and Chromebooks.

“They moved heaven and earth to make sure that CPS got what we needed as quickly as they possibly could have on a constrained supply chain to make sure that our students could engage in remote learning,” said DiBartolo.

Those two vendors got the bulk of Chicago’s business in the spring, with about $13.6 million going to CDW-G and $5.8 million to Apple. Overall, the district scored good deals on tablets and laptops; several education technology experts agreed. 

But the district also turned to a third company, which it had never worked with before: Aistrope’s Meeting Tomorrow. The company, which before the pandemic loaned out equipment for conferences and other large events, sold the district an assortment of used devices: two- and three-year-old iPads, an iPad Air model discontinued three years ago, as well as Lenovo ThinkPads and Dell laptops.

The district didn’t get deep discounts. For instance, it paid $300 for the 2017 iPads, slightly more than what the district paid Apple for brand-new devices. The older iPads came with cell service capacity, but they’re not worth the higher cost without a data plan, experts said.

Some experts also said a mishmash of devices and models complicates maintenance and software choices. The older-model machines are closer to the end of their life cycles and less likely to run up-to-date software, while some of the laptops came with more limited memory and might require a memory upgrade down the road.

“Why would they buy older, slower machines?” asked Richard Culatta of the nonprofit International Society for Technology in Education. “There would need to be some logical reason for that decision; otherwise, I would expect to see the newest models and not so many different models.”

But another expert, Hal Friedlander, head of the nonprofit Technology for Education Consortium and a former chief information officer of New York City Public Schools, said the older machines should meet students’ needs, and that the arrangement looks like an out-of-the-box way to get around supply difficulties.

In an interview, DiBartolo wouldn’t discuss the deal with Meeting Tomorrow — the district’s fourth-largest tech vendor last spring — saying he and his staff spoke with a “litany” of vendors soliciting district business.

“Our approach was leave no stone unturned and talk to anyone that had reasonable product at a reasonable price,” DiBartolo said.

The district did not provide a contract with the company or responses to a list of questions about the purchase.

But in an interview, Aistrope said after learning the district needed technology, he contacted Samir Mayekar, Chicago’s deputy mayor for economic and neighborhood development. Aistrope said he met Mayekar last fall when he reached out about getting involved in the city’s Invest South/West initiative, a public-private partnership aimed at revitalizing historically disinvested parts of Chicago. 

Mayekar forwarded Aistrope’s inquiry to Sybil Madison, deputy mayor for education, who sent it to the school district. The following day, Aistrope said he was on a Zoom conference call, pitching his company’s devices to DiBartolo and the district’s chief operating officer, Arnaldo Rivera.

He said the devices sold to the district, which he believes went to charter schools, were in “excellent condition” and the company charged reasonable prices in “a nutty, crazy market.” The purchase also kept the company afloat at a time when it faced layoffs; Aistrope said renting and selling devices to school districts and college campuses now makes up the bulk of his business.

In 2019, Aistrope contributed nearly $30,000 in cash and in-kind contributions for Lightfoot’s mayoral bid, campaign records show. He acknowledged it might appear as though his contribution helped secure the deal with the district, but said that wasn’t the case.

“Obviously I can see how somebody might say that, not having the context,” he said. “It’s not my intent and if I ever thought that this would kind of muddy anything, I wouldn’t have done it.”

He added that when he made the contributions to Lightfoot’s campaign he never intended to do business with the city.

“We did this to help out,” he said. 

Mayekar said he only spoke with Aistrope once — about Invest South/West — prior to Aistrope’s inquiry this spring and said he was not aware Aistrope contributed to Lightfoot’s campaign.

“I connect people and constituents who reach out to our office to really help them make the connections that they need regardless of who reaches out to us,” Mayekar said. “When he offered assistance at a time of need, just like many people do every week, I put him in touch with the people looking for goods and services and donations.” 

A first round of orders, then a second 

Chicago placed large device orders during the first week of April. Late that month, after the district learned the need for devices was greater than expected, it bought thousands of additional computers, including the devices from Meeting Tomorrow. 

DiBartolo said its suppliers rushed the machines to the district. Most of the more than 50,000 computers it bought took six to eight weeks to arrive, getting in during the second half of April and first half of May, “with some straggling in after that” — a timeline that meant some students received their district-issued devices just weeks before the school year’s mid-June end. 

Some other Illinois districts moved faster.

Elgin, a 37,400-student district in Chicago’s northwest suburbs, put in an order for nearly 4,000 Chromebooks on March 17, the day schools in Illinois closed. Rockford, a district with 28,200 students in northern Illinois, had enough devices on hand to cover students who needed computers. But on April 3, it bought 18,450 new iPads and Chromebooks so it could retire older devices and replace some it had been leasing. Both districts got their deliveries in four weeks.

In Chicago, DiBartolo said the district didn’t need to wait on its orders: It started giving out its existing stock of about 65,000 devices, some of which were acquired as part of the district’s 2024 goal to provide a computer to each of the district’s 300,000 students. At the local level, said Elaine Allensworth of the Consortium on Chicago School Research, schools placed differing values on acquiring computers in the years before the pandemic and have ended up with uneven device stocks, with some campuses investing in technology while others lagged behind.

Some students and parents say the older computers Chicago handed out were not well-suited to virtual learning, in part, because of the wear and tear from students who had previously used them.

Students said the slow speed of older Chromebooks made it hard to livestream video classes and upload assignments. One parent said that two of the four school-issued devices had malfunctioning cameras and microphones, while another said the keyboard was broken.

Esmeralda DeLaGarza, a sophomore at Solorio Academy High School on the city’s Southwest Side, received a 2012 model Chromebook from her school. She said she could only watch video classes from her cell phone and could keep only one tab open at a time on the Chromebook. 

“Many students at my school were saying these devices were trash,” DeLaGarza said. “I thought I was lucky to have a device at all.”

The district launched a new parent help desk to assist families with the abrupt transition to remote learning. Tracy Occomy Crowder, deputy director of the parent advocacy group Community Organizing and Family Issues, said families across the state struggled to navigate technology issues. They were sometimes unsure where to turn for help — the district’s help desk or their schools — and craved more guidance on how to help their kids make the most out of learning online.

“Folks have risen to the occasion, but it shouldn’t be all on them,” she said. 

DiBartolo said the district’s pre-pandemic device stock was “perfectly serviceable for the need,” but the district is reaching out to students who received devices that were “a little bit longer in the tooth” about replacing them ahead of the school year’s start.

“I was very proud of our principals for rising above and doing everything they could and more to make sure that our students had the requisite degree of equipment at home,” he said.

The remote learning transition challenged technology teams in many districts, including some that had more extensive technology stockpiles than Chicago.

Before the pandemic, Springfield was already close to its goal of having a device for each of its roughly 13,000 students. But it hadn’t yet invested in an online learning management platform. After the shift to remote learning, parents and students were suddenly receiving emails and messages across multiple platforms and from different teachers throughout the school day, Jennifer Gill, Springfield’s superintendent, said.

The district paid $72,000 to roll out a platform called Canvas, which allows teachers to set up remote classrooms. The use of the program wasn’t mandatory in the spring, but some experts said it would be an extremely challenging transition amid the pandemic. Springfield Education Association President Aaron Graves said many teachers who are less technologically savvy have struggled.

“As they’re trying to figure this out, it puts a lot of stress onto them,” he said.

Looming costs

Buying devices and accessories at the height of the pandemic is only a first step — an initial crack at addressing profound technology access gaps rather than a permanent solution.

In Chicago, the teachers union and others criticized the school district for lagging on a comprehensive plan to address internet access gaps until the city unveiled an initiative to provide free internet to 100,000 students after the school year’s end.

DiBartolo said Chicago, which bought 12,000 additional Chromebooks and 4,000 iPads in July, is heading into the fall in a strong position. The district offered digital learning training for teachers over the summer and recently announced a $1.5 million donation from Boeing to buy computers and headsets for students and teachers. Any student who needs a computer this fall will get one, the district has vowed.

Experts say districts should be hard at work making strategic plans for their drastically expanded device fleets. They need to put thought and money into maintaining and repairing computers, training educators, selecting high-quality digital content, and more. 

“In March, everyone rushed out to buy devices and get them to kids,” said Friedlander. “We were all completely surprised. Now we know. So how are districts adapting?”

That sort of long-range planning may prove difficult as supply issues for technology continue unabated.

Complicating matters for Chicago and other districts are looming financial pressures wrought by the pandemic. Many district officials in Illinois counted on an initial federal stimulus package approved last spring to recoup their spending on technology, but they don’t have a source for the ongoing costs of ownership.

Chicago is counting on a second federal stimulus infusion of $343 million to balance its 2020-2021 budget, but talks about the package in Congress have stalled. Meanwhile, a recent bid by Illinois to rectify historic underfunding of its schools was upended by the pandemic, leaving districts’ funding flat for the coming year.

Rockford is charting out a multi-year plan to save for another big round of spending when the devices it purchased this year need to be replaced. The plan doesn’t count on more relief from the federal government, but will rely in part on an increase in state funding in future years. 

Maintenance and replacement costs will present a challenge for districts across the state. 

“The fear is, when these Streams get old, then what?” said Carla Eman, director of budgets and compliance for Peoria Public Schools, referring to the HP version of a Chromebook the district placed a large order for in June. “I don’t know. We’ll just have to figure it out as the time goes by.”

La pandemia del coronavirus paralizó la empresa de Mark Aistrope, dedicada a alquilar tecnología para conferencias de negocios.

Fue entonces que él vio una oportunidad: Su compañía poseía una verdadera flota de laptops y Ipads justo cuando el distrito escolar de Chicago necesitaba miles de estos dispositivos debido al abrupto cambio causado en el aprendizaje vía internet por el brote epidémico.

Aistrope, director ejecutivo (CEO) de Meeting Tomorrow, con base en Chicago, y además contribuyente a la campaña de la alcaldesa Lori Lightfoot, a quien contactó en marzo pasado. Al día siguiente, Aistrope dijo haber estado en una videoconferencia con altos funcionarios del distrito escolar de Chicago – paso previo antes de cerrar una venta, por $1.6 millones de dólares, de laptops y modelos viejos de iPads, todos de uso.

Al igual que otros distritos de Illinois y de toda la nación, Chicago se enfocó en rápidamente consolidar su arsenal tecnológico bajo difíciles circunstancias. Al hacerlo, se tropezó con problemas de suministro, disparidades bien marcadas en cuanto al acceso a banda ancha (broadband) en la ciudad y con un inventario de dispositivos ya obsoletos incluso antes de la pandemia. A un costo de $30 millones en julio, la persistencia de Chicago en adquirir tecnología para los estudiantes fue una hazaña típica de Hércules; el distrito contactó proveedores ya establecidos por largo tiempo y obtuvo así precios razonables.

Pero un análisis hecho por Chalkbeat Chicago y la Asociación Better Government, sobre las órdenes de compra en la primavera y el verano – así como entrevistas con expertos en tecnología, líderes distritales y familias – muestra que el distrito puso órdenes de compra de dispositivos posterior a otros distritos de Illinois; esto dejó a varias familias batallando con dispositivos más lentos o de mal funcionamiento, y en el caso de Meeting Tomorrow la compra concluyó con dispositivos viejos y usados.

Debido al empuje, casi de la noche al día, de los ejes tecnológicos, Chicago y otros distritos escolares del estado ahora enfrentan gastos y responsabilidades – que van desde reparar equipos dañados hasta entrenamiento de maestros – en momentos en que el país parece estar suspendido en una incertidumbre financiera. La tarea presenta una nueva y mayor prueba a superar ya que en el 2020 los llamados Chromebooks y los iPads se han convertido en algo tan necesario como los mismos libros de texto, según Janice Jackson, funcionaria escolar de Chicago.

“La forma en que manejamos IT (Instructional Technology) en los distritos escolares es inmadura”, dijo Douglas Levin, presidente de EdTech Strategies, consultora de distritos. “Cuando tenemos dinero, salimos a comprar las herramientas que queremos. Pero los distritos pueden carecer de los recursos necesarios para estas compras”.

Los líderes escolares de Chicago dicen estar orgullosos de la respuesta del distrito a la pandemia – y preparados para un comienzo completamente virtual en el nuevo curso escolar.

“EL COVID-19 nos creó algo solo comparable a una tormenta perfecta”, afirmó Phillip DiBartolo, Jefe de la Oficina de Información de Chicago, y añadió que “al final de cuentas, yo estaba perfectamente satisfecho con el esfuerzo y el nivel de coordinación realizados”.

NO QUEDÓ PIEDRA SIN VIRAR

Mientras que Chicago se crecía ante una mayor demanda de dispositivos la pasada primavera, el distrito se volcó hacia dos “pesos pesados” con los cuales había firmado contratos multimillonarios y forjado relaciones en años recientes: Apple y CDW-G, empresas intermediarias para laptops marca Dell y los Chromebooks.

“Ellos movieron cielo y tierra para asegurar que el CPS – Escuelas Públicas de Chicago – tuviera todo lo que necesitaba lo antes posible, a pesar de una apretada cadena de suministros, y para que nuestros estudiantes pudieran enrolarse en el aprendizaje vía remoto”, dijo DiBartolo

Estos dos vendedores adquirieron la mayor parte de las negociaciones de Chicago en la primavera, con $13.6 millones para CDW-G y $5.8 millones para Apple. En resumen, el distrito logró buenas ofertas en tabletas y laptops; según varios expertos en tecnología.

Peo el distrito también puso sus ojos en una tercera compañía con la que nunca había trabajado: Meeting Tomorrow de Ainstrope. Antes de la pandemia, esta empresa – que ya había alquilado equipos para conferencias y otros eventos – le vendió al distrito un surtido de dispositivos de segunda mano: iPads de dos y tres años de manufactura; un modelo de iPad por Aire, descontinuado desde hacía tres años; así como ThinkPads  Lenovo y laptops marca Dell.

El distrito nunca obtuvo grandes descuentos. Por ejemplo, pagó $300 por iPads del 2017, un poco más que lo que el distrito le pagó a Apple por el mismo tipo de dispositivo, pero nuevos. Los modelos viejos de iPads venían con capacidad para servicio celular, pero no valía la pena pagar un precio más alto sin tener a cambio un plan de información o data, dijeron los expertos.

Algunos de estos especialistas dijeron que la mezcla de dispositivos y modelos complica el mantenimiento y selección de los softwares (programas). Los modelos más viejos están más cerca de terminar su ciclo de vida y menos propensos a actualizar sus programas, asimismo algunos de los laptops vinieron con memoria limitada por lo que requerirían actualizaciones, tarde o temprano.

“¿Por qué comprarían artefactos viejos y lentos?”, preguntó Richard Culatta de la organización no-lucrativa Sociedad Internacional para Tecnología en la Educación. “Necesitarían tener una razón lógica para tomar tal decisión, de otra manera, yo esperaría a ver los modelos más nuevos y no tanta diversidad”.

Pero otro experto, Hal Friedlander, líder del consorcio no-lucrativo Tecnología para la Educación y antiguo jefe de la Oficina de Información de las Escuelas Públicas de la Ciudad de Nueva York, dijo que ‘los dispositivos viejos debían satisfacer las necesidades estudiantiles y que el acuerdo lucía como una vía para sortear las dificultades de abastecimiento’.

En una entrevista, DiBartolo no discutió el acuerdo con Meeting Tomorrow – el cuarto vendedor más grande del distrito la primavera pasada – aduciendo que él y su empleomanía habían hablado con una “letanía” de vendedores ansiosos de negociar con el distrito.

“Nuestro enfoque fue no dejar ni una sola piedra sin virar y hablar con cualquiera que tuviera un producto razonable a un precio razonable”, dijo DiBartolo

El distrito no proveyó un contrato con la compañía o respuesta a una lista de preguntas acerca de la compra.

Pero en una entrevista, Aistrope dijo – después de enterarse que el distrito necesitaba tecnología – que él había contactado a Samir Mayekar, asistente del alcalde para desarrollo económico y vecindad. Aistrope dijo haberse reunido con Mayekar el pasado otoño cuando él buscaba involucrarse en la iniciativa municipal de inversión Invest South/West, un consorcio público-privado dirigido a revitalizar partes de Chicago históricamente abandonadas.

Mayekar refirió la petición de Aistrope a Sybil Madison, asistente alcaldicia para la educación, quien a su vez la refirió al distrito escolar. Al día siguiente, Aistrope dijo que estaba en una conferencia telefónica, promoviendo sus dispositivos a DiBartolo y al Director de Operaciones, Arnaldo Rivera.

Aistrope dijo que los dispositivos vendidos al distrito, que el creyó era para Escuelas “Charter”, estaban en “excelentes condiciones” y que su compañía cobró precios razonables “en medio de un mercado enloquecido”. La compra también mantuvo a flote su empresa evitando la posibilidad de despidos; Aistrope dijo que alquilar y vender dispositivos al distrito escolar y a recintos universitarios había equilibrado el grueso de sus finanzas.

En el 2019, Aistrope contribuyó con casi $30,000 en efectivo y generosas donaciones para la elección alcaldicia de Lightfoot, según muestran los récords de campaña. Él reconoció que podría parecer como si su contribución ayudó a asegurar un contrato con el distrito, pero aseguró que ese no era el caso.

“Obviamente, alguien podría decir eso fuera de contexto”, dijo. “No es mi intención y si alguna vez pensara que eso mancharía algo, nunca lo habría hecho”.

Añadió que cuando él hizo contribuciones a la campaña de Lightfoot, nunca intentó hacer negocio con la municipalidad.

“Lo hicimos para ayudar”, afirmó.

Mayekar dijo que sólo habló una vez con Aistrope – acerca de Invest South/West – previo a la solicitud de Aistrope en la primavera y dijo ignorar que Aistrope contribuyera a la campaña de Lightfoot.

“Yo conecto gente y constituyentes que vienen a nuestra oficina. Los ayudamos a hacer las conexiones necesarias independientemente de quienes sean los que se nos acercan”, dijo Mayekar. “Cuando él ofreció asistirnos, como lo hace mucha gente cada semana, lo puse en contacto con la gente que están buscando productos, servicios y donaciones”.

UNA PRIMERA RONDA DE ÓRDENES DE COMPRA, LUEGO UNA SEGUNDA

Chicago puso grandes órdenes de compra de dispositivos en la primera semana de abril. Más tarde ese mes, después que el distrito se percató que la necesidad era mayor de lo esperado, compró miles de computadoras adicionales, incluyendo dispositivos de Meeting Tomorrow.

DiBartolo dijo que los proveedores aceleraron dichas máquinas hacia el distrito. La mayoría de las más de 50,000 computadores que el distrito compró se demoraron de 6 a 8 semanas en llegar, es decir durante la segunda mitad de abril y la primera de mayo, “con alguna que otra extensión después de esa fecha” – esta última cronología significó que algunos estudiantes las recibieron solo semanas antes de concluir el curso escolar a mediados de junio”.

Otros distritos de Illinois actuaron más rápidamente.

Elgin, un distrito de 37,400 estudiantes en los suburbios al noroeste de Chicago, puso una orden de casi 4,000 Chromebooks el 17 de marzo, justo el día que cerraron las escuelas en Illinois. Rockford, un distrito con 28,200 estudiantes en el norte de Illinois, tenía suficientes computadoras en inventario para aquellos que carecían de una. Pero el 3 de abril, el distrito compró 18,450 iPads y Chromebooks nuevos pudiendo así retirar los modelos viejos y remplazar algunos que estaban rentados. Ambos distritos obtuvieron los materiales en cuatro semanas.

En Chicago, DiBartolo señaló que el distrito no necesitaba esperar por los encargos: Se comenzó a distribuir el inventario existente de unos 65,000 dispositivos, algunos de los cuales fueron adquiridos por el distrito para el 2024; el propósito era dar una computadora a cada uno de sus 300,000 alumnos. A nivel local, dijo Elaine Allenworth del Consorcio de Investigación Escolar de Chicago, las escuelas consideraron valores diferentes en cuanto a adquirir computadoras antes de la pandemia, pero terminaron con un inventario irregular de dispositivos y con algunos recintos invirtiendo en tecnología mientras otros se quedaban atrás.

Algunos alumnos y padres dijeron que los modelos viejos de computadoras distribuidos en Chicago no se ajustaban precisamente al aprendizaje virtual, en parte, debido al desgaste causado por estudiantes previos.

Según estudiantes, la lenta velocidad de los Chromebooks más viejos hacía muy difícil la transmisión en vivo de las clases y la ‘subida’ (upload) de tareas al sistema. Un padre dijo que dos de los cuatro dispositivos otorgados por la escuela mostraban malfuncionamiento en cámaras y micrófonos, otro dijo que el teclado estaba roto.

Esmeralda DeLaGarza, estudiante de 2do año en la secundaria Solorio Academy, en el área suroeste de la ciudad, recibió un Chromebook, modelo del 2012. Ella dijo que solo podía ver clases de video por su celular y que únicamente podía tener una lengüeta o tab abierto a la vez en el Chromebook.

“Muchos estudiantes en mi escuela decían que estos dispositivos eran una basura”, dijo DeLaGarza. “Para mí era una gran suerte tener al menos un dispositivo”.

El distrito abrió un nuevo buró para asistir a familias que experimentaban una abrupta transición hacia la enseñanza por remoto. Tracy Occomy Crowder, director asistente del grupo comunitario “Organizing and Family Issues”, que aboga por los padres, dijo que en el estado había familias batallando con la tecnología. A veces no sabían si pedir o no ayuda – al distrito o a las escuelas – y ansiaban tener más orientación sobre como ayudar a sus hijos con el aprendizaje vía internet.

“Los padres han sabido estar a la altura de la situación. Pero todo no debe recaer sobre ellos”, dijo Tracy.

DiBartolo afirmó que el inventario de dispositivos del distrito, previo a la pandemia, “satisfacía perfectamente las necesidades”, pero el distrito está localizando a aquellos estudiantes que recibieron dispositivos ya obsoletos para remplazárselos antes del comienzo del nuevo curso escolar.

“Me sentí orgulloso de nuestros directores de escuelas por crecerse ante las dificultades y hacer todo lo posible para que nuestros estudiantes tuvieran los equipos adecuados en sus hogares”, dijo DiBartolo.

La transición a la enseñanza por remoto retó a los equipos tecnológicos en muchos distritos, incluyendo algunos que tenían más arsenales tecnológicos que Chicago.

Antes de la pandemia, Springfield se acercaba a la meta de tener un dispositivo para cada uno de sus 13,000 estudiantes, pero todavía no había invertido en una plataforma para manejar el aprendizaje vía internet. Después del cambio al aprendizaje por remoto, padres y estudiantes comenzaron repentinamente a recibir – durante el día escolar y a través de múltiples plataformas – correos electrónicos y mensajes de diferentes maestros, dijo Jennifer Gill, superintendente de Springfield.

El distrito pagó $72,000 para desplegar una plataforma llamada ‘Canvas’ la cual permite a los maestros implementar aulas para clases por remoto. El uso de este programa no era obligatorio en la primavera, pero algunos expertos dijeron que eso sería una transición extremadamente desafiante en medio de la pandemia. Aaron Graves, presidente de la Asociación para la Educación, en Springfield, dijo que muchos maestros con poco conocimiento tecnológico han tenido que batallar con esto.

“Mientras que tratan de descifrar como hacerlo bien, la tensión aumenta en ellos”, dijo Graves

GASTOS INMINENTES

Comprar dispositivos y accesorios en el clímax de la pandemia fue apenas un primer paso – una especie de grieta inicial por enfocarse más en las brechas de acceso tecnológico en lugar de buscar una solución permanente.

En Chicago, los sindicatos de maestros, entre otros, criticaron el distrito escolar por demorarse con un plan exhaustivo para resolver dichas brechas. Finalmente, la ciudad develó una iniciativa para proveer internet gratuitamente a 100,000 después del fin de curso.

DiBartolo dijo que Chicago, que trajo 12,000 Chromebooks adicionales y 4,000 iPads en julio, se encamina hacia el otoño en una sólida posición. El distrito ofreció entrenamiento de aprendizaje digital para maestros este verano y recientemente anunció una donación de la empresa aérea Boeing, por $1.5 millones, destinada a comprar computadoras y auriculares para alumnos y maestros. Cualquier estudiante que necesite computadora este otoño tendrá una, ha prometido el distrito.

Expertos dicen que los distritos deben trabajar fuertemente en sus planes estratégicos para expandir drásticamente sus inventarios de dispositivos. Ellos deben poner esfuerzo y dinero para el mantenimiento y reparación de computadoras, entrenamiento de educadores, selección de contenido digital de alta calidad, y mucho más.

“En marzo, todos corrieron a comprar dispositivos y hacerlos llegar a los muchachos”, dijo Friedlander. “Estuvimos realmente sorprendidos. Ahora ya sabemos. ¿Cómo se están adaptando los distritos?”

Ese tipo de planeamiento a largo plazo podría ser algo difícil mientras los problemas de suministros tecnológicos sigan sin disminuir.

Para complicar las cosas en Chicago y otros distritos, las presiones financieras inminentes están provocadas por la pandemia. Funcionarios de muchos distritos en Illinois contaban con un paquete inicial de estímulo federal aprobado en la primavera pasada para recuperar gastos en tecnología, sin embargo, carecen de recursos para cubrir gastos actuales de propiedad.

Chicago confía en la infusión de un segundo paquete de estímulo federal por $343 millones para balancear su presupuesto 2020-2021, pero en el congreso ha quedado en suspenso la discusión del tema.

El intento de Illinois de rectificar la histórica falta de fondos a escuelas fue interrumpido por la pandemia, dejando a sus distritos por el suelo para el año siguiente.

Rockford está trazando un plan multi anual de ahorro, en caso de otra ronda de gastos, para cuando haya que remplazar los dispositivos comprados este año. El plan no cuenta con más ayuda federal, pero confía en un aumento de fondos estatales en el futuro.

Los gastos de mantenimiento y remplazo presentarán un reto para los distritos del estado.

“El temor es que, cuando estas tendencias envejezcan… ¿entonces qué?”, dijo Carla Eman, directora de Presupuestos y Conformidad para las Escuelas Públicas de Peoria, refiriéndose a la versión HP de un Chromebook que el distrito compró en grandes cantidades en junio. “No sé. Tendremos que ver sobre la marcha cómo vamos a resolver”.

Illinois school leaders spent tens of millions of dollars within weeks as they scrambled to respond to the coronavirus outbreak and the abrupt school closures it triggered.

In a bid to roll out remote learning plans quickly, officials made rapid-fire buys even before the federal government promised $678 million in emergency aid for Illinois schools. In some of the largest school districts across the state, the bulk of the spending went toward thousands of laptops and tablets.

But the robust purchases still fall short of supplying all students with the computers and reliable internet they need to learn at home, underscoring the depth of the digital divide facing low-income families. Officials are only just beginning to track whether all this new equipment is paying off in more students logging in and learning, with fewer than two-thirds of high schoolers participating in remote learning in Peoria. Chicago Public Schools, the state’s largest district, still hasn’t provided a districtwide tally for how many students engage in school work at all.

Other critical questions loom: How far will the federal emergency funds stretch to cover district costs? How aggressively should districts spend to rein in the pandemic’s damage to their most vulnerable students and to prepare for the unpredictable months ahead?

Parents and others are calling on districts to be more transparent about their spending decisions and enlist public input.

“No one has a playbook on how to navigate this,” said Jianan Shi of the parent group Raise Your Hand for Illinois Public Education, part of a coalition pressing Chicago district officials to include families in spending decisions. “We expect the district to be in partnership with its families for the solutions.”

Chalkbeat and the Better Government Association surveyed five of Illinois’ largest school districts about their expenditures tied to the crisis: Chicago, Rockford School District 205, Springfield School District 186, Elgin School District U-46, and Peoria School District 150. Springfield did not provide a list of expenses.

Chicago said this week it could provide estimated expenditures only through April 10. Asked to provide public records of technology purchases and contracts, the district referred Chalkbeat to a school board document authorizing expenditures up to $75 million during the crisis without board approval.

Illinois district administrators said they don’t know when they’ll receive federal dollars earmarked for their schools, what specific expenditures will be covered, or how much of the money they will have to pass on to charter and private schools.

The federal aid the five districts expect to receive amounts to less than 4% of their combined annual budgets.

“The federal money at this juncture won’t be enough, particularly in communities that are low income,” said Ralph Martire of the Chicago-based Center for Budget and Tax Accountability.

Technology purchases

When the coronavirus outbreak closed the state’s schools in March, the districts Chalkbeat and the BGA surveyed were in very different spots in terms of their technology inventories.

Chicago lagged other districts. A year before the pandemic, schools chief Janice Jackson set a goal to equip each of its more than 300,000 students in district-run schools with a computer by 2024. When COVID-19 hit, about 115,000 students still needed a device, by a district estimate.

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Since March, the district has bought 53,000 Chromebooks, iPads and laptops — an initial purchase worth $13.8 million followed by a more recent buy — to add to 65,000 devices it had in stock. Two months since schools closed, it has handed out roughly 100,000 of those devices.

Elgin U-46, which has an enrollment of 39,000, was in the midst of rolling out a plan to equip each student with a laptop and had just purchased 1,100 iPads for preschoolers before the pandemic hit. The district spent another $1 million beefing up its inventory of Chromebooks when the governor announced school closures.

“Right out the gate, we placed an order for as many Chromebooks as we could get our hands on because we did not have a device for every family,” Elgin Superintendent Tony Sanders said.

In Rockford, School District 205 had enough Chromebooks for everyone who needed one from third through 12th grade. But administrators had a logistical problem: Some schools had a surplus of computers while others didn’t have enough. In the end, the district deployed 15,000 Chromebooks from its stockpile and bought an additional 16,000 devices. With the new purchases, the district has roughly one device for each of its nearly 29,000 students.

Superintendent Ehren Jarrett said the district is taking a risk because he doesn’t know if the emergency federal funds will cover the device purchases, but he felt spending the money quickly was necessary.

“We are hopeful that these dollars will flow through –– we certainly need them –– but we didn’t want to wait or hesitate to meet the needs of our students,” Jarrett said.

Internet access

Devices are just a start. For districts, ensuring students have reliable access to the internet has proved a more daunting task. Elgin officials briefly considered equipping school buses with Wi-Fi and parking them in high-need neighborhoods, but quickly realized the signal wouldn’t be strong enough.

Other districts studied taking advantage of the publicly accessible Wi-Fi locations that dot their cities. But they stopped short of encouraging families to leave their homes while a stay-at-home order was in effect. Some districts purchased hot-spot devices for some students, but those are expensive and now largely out of stock amid high demand.

In the end, many districts leaned heavily on steering families to low-cost internet programs from Comcast and other providers. That approach has drawn concerns because the fine print on the deal can prevent some families from signing up.

Recently, some districts have tried to remove those barriers, as elected officials and civic groups press internet providers to expand their services to establish Wi-Fi “super spots” in high-need communities.

Elgin agreed to pick up the monthly Comcast bill for about 100 low-income families. Last week, Rockford’s school board made a similar decision, agreeing to spend up to $39,800 to connect students to a Comcast plan costing each about $10 per month after two free months. Rockford estimates about 1,000 of its nearly 29,000 students don’t have reliable internet service.

“The Comcast (plan) is really our stopgap until we get to the next digital learning, remote learning plan going forward,” said Jason Barthel​​, Rockford’s executive director of technology, at an April board meeting.

In Peoria, where roughly 70% of the school district’s 13,000 students are low income, the district formed a “connectivity committee” that called Comcast on behalf of families who could not sign up for the company’s low-cost plan because of issues outside their control. For example, some families lived in apartments where previous tenants hadn’t paid their bills. The district also spent $108,000 on 200 hot-spot devices with unlimited data plans for a year.

Chicago spent $2.6 million on 12,000 hot-spot devices for students who lack secure housing. But with an estimated one out of five Chicago children under 18 living in a home without broadband, officials have said securing internet access for all students who need it is too costly and have pointed families to Comcast’s plan.

The Chicago Teachers Union calls that response a “cop-out,” saying the district must look for “creative solutions” to get more students connected. It has also criticized the district’s device rollout as uneven.

“The claim is that black children matter,” said Stacy Davis Gates, the union’s vice president. “Brown children matter. Homeless children matter. But the reality is that many of these children still don’t have devices and broadband access.”

Participation rates

As remote learning has become the reality for the rest of the spring and possibly into the fall, districts are stepping up efforts to track how many students are participating and to encourage more to log on.

But participation data so far has lagged. One reason is that the state left it up to individual districts to define and track student engagement. Getting a full picture of how many students are attending remote classes, turning in assignments, or connecting with teachers in some way, and then comparing that data district-to-district may prove difficult.

Chicago officials have said they are starting to track attendance by campus, but unlike some other large urban districts they have not yet released any numbers.

Rockford officials said they started tracking in April the number of students who completed assignments or asked for feedback, but the district said it will not have full data until the end of this week.

Other districts said they believe their investments in technology, plus phone calls, mailers, and other types of dedicated outreach, are improving student engagement.

In Peoria, district officials said high school participation rates rose to 60% in mid-April, from 54% at the beginning of the month. In all grades, participation rates averaged roughly 70%.

“We feel that we have done a good job at reaching our kids while obviously demonstrating room for improvement,” said Thomas Bruch, Peoria Public Schools spokesman.

In Elgin, the district said overall attendance improved from 80% in late March to 85% in late April, though students who qualify for subsidized lunch — a measure of poverty — lag markedly behind their peers.

While technology represents the bulk of emergency spending — about 80% for Chicago, Peoria and Rockford combined — districts are also paying for other urgent needs. Among them are pay and protective equipment for workers who hand out meals and devices to families outside of schools.

Chicago is paying its front-line staff, such as janitors and nutrition workers, a 50% premium to work while schools are closed. By mid-April, that cost had added up to about $2.5 million.

Looking ahead

Some critics say with federal help on the way, districts must spend more aggressively to keep vulnerable students from falling behind — and that spending plans should go beyond technology. Others urge leaders to take a more conservative approach, worrying the federal dollars will cover limited expenses and won’t avert budget shortfalls amid declining state revenue.

The feds haven’t spelled out which expenses they will cover, and Martire of the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability points to numerous gray areas, such as the premium pay for staff, that may or may not be reimbursed.

The full impact of the pandemic on the Illinois economy and state coffers is still hard to predict. This week, a Chicago coalition of parents and advocacy groups urged state leaders not to cut school funding and fill the gap with the federal dollars. The groups also called for steering federal emergency dollars toward the state’s most vulnerable students, including those from low-income families and those with disabilities.

With Gov. J.B. Pritzker forecasting the state could fall $6.2 billion short from now through June 2021 compared with his pre-COVID spending plans, some districts are already bracing for tough budgetary times and belt-tightening. Elgin froze hiring for positions not deemed critical. In Rockford, the district is projecting revenue shortfalls from $10 million to $19 million next school year.

“We are prepared to use a combination of any of these federal dollars as well as the reserves to avoid having to cut back significantly on staff and buy some time,” said Jarrett, Rockford’s superintendent.

In Chicago, leaders sounded more optimistic and said they planned to spend nearly 5% more on schools next year. They did not explain how the federal dollars will figure in next year’s budget, but Jackson said at an April board meeting that the district will present a spending plan in coming weeks. As of mid-April, the district had spent the equivalent of 10% of its anticipated federal funds.

The Chicago Teachers Union said the district is missing an opportunity to attack longstanding inequities. Union leaders think the district needs to invest more in services for students with special needs and for English learners, and hire more social workers and nurses to address trauma in the fall.

School board members, who in March granted district leaders permission to spend as much as $75 million without prior authorization, urged the district to keep anticipated budget pressures in mind.

“Those unknowns will impact our budget,” board member Lucino Sotelo said. “We have to make sure we are responsible stewards.”

Still, some advocates say that the pandemic could provide an opening to rethink how schools reach disadvantaged students and how Illinois invests in their education.

“While there are many challenges presented by the COVID-19 crisis,” the Chicago coalition of civic groups wrote to the state, “this is also an opportunity to support innovations in education to support our most vulnerable students.”