Technology budgeting for private schools: a CFO's guide

Private school CFOs face an uncomfortable reality with technology budgets. Costs keep increasing. Expectations keep rising. And unlike public schools, you can’t pass bond measures to fund infrastructure upgrades.

Every dollar spent on technology is a dollar not spent on faculty, facilities, or financial aid. The pressure to make smart technology investments is real.

What actually costs money

Before building a budget, understand where technology dollars typically go in a school environment:

Infrastructure (30-40% of budget) Network equipment, servers, wireless access points, cabling. The stuff nobody sees until it breaks. Lifespan varies, but plan on replacing networking equipment every 5-7 years and servers every 4-5 years.

Devices (25-35% of budget) Student devices, teacher laptops, classroom technology, administrative computers. If you’re 1:1, this is your biggest expense. Device replacement cycles are typically 3-4 years.

Software and subscriptions (20-30% of budget) SIS, LMS, productivity suites, security tools, specialized educational software. These costs compound - every new subscription is a recurring commitment.

Personnel (varies widely) IT staff salaries and benefits. For many schools, this is actually the largest technology-related cost, though it may sit in a different budget category.

Support and services (5-15% of budget) Contracted support, consultants, managed services, break/fix vendors. This category often grows when personnel capacity is limited.

The total cost problem

Most schools significantly undercount their technology spending because it’s spread across budgets. The business office pays for network infrastructure. Academic departments buy their own software. The development office funds presentation equipment for events.

In our experience working with schools, actual technology spending is typically 15-25% higher than what appears in the “IT budget.”

Before you can budget effectively, you need to know what you’re actually spending. Consolidate technology costs across all departments into a single view, even if budget authority remains distributed.

Building a sustainable budget

Here’s a framework that works for many private schools:

Start with baseline operations

Calculate what it costs to keep current systems running. Licensing renewals, support contracts, routine replacements, staff costs. This is your non-negotiable baseline.

If your baseline exceeds your budget, you have a structural problem that needs immediate attention.

Build in refresh cycles

Technology has a finite lifespan. If you’re not budgeting for replacement, you’re accumulating technical debt.

A simple approach: divide your device inventory by 4 (for a 4-year cycle). That’s how many devices you should replace annually. Same principle applies to infrastructure - divide by the expected lifespan.

This creates predictable, level spending rather than periodic crises when everything fails at once.

Reserve for the unexpected

Something will break. Something will need emergency replacement. A new security vulnerability will require immediate response.

Budget 10-15% above planned spending for contingency. If you don’t use it, great - roll it into next year’s refresh budget.

Evaluate new investments separately

New initiatives - a 1:1 device program, a new SIS, a classroom technology refresh - should be evaluated as discrete projects with clear business cases. Don’t try to fund major initiatives from operational budgets.

Where schools waste money

In conversations with school business officers, certain patterns emerge repeatedly:

Unused software licenses. You’re paying for 500 licenses but only 300 people use the software. Audit annually.

Overlapping tools. Three different departments paying for three different video conferencing solutions. Standardize.

Premium features nobody uses. The enterprise tier with advanced features when the basic tier would suffice. Right-size your subscriptions.

Break/fix support for stable systems. Paying for on-call support on systems that rarely have issues. Consider reducing coverage.

Deferred maintenance that compounds. Skipping updates and replacements until systems fail entirely, then paying emergency rates for recovery. Penny wise, pound foolish.

The staffing question

Here’s where we should be direct. The typical ISSL school runs technology with 1-3 IT staff. That’s not enough to do everything that needs doing.

You have three options:

Increase staff. The most straightforward solution. Also the most expensive and hardest to execute given the competitive market for IT talent.

Reduce scope. Standardize aggressively. Sunset old systems. Say no more often. Accept that some things won’t get done.

Outsource selectively. Use managed services for specific functions - network monitoring, backup verification, security operations - while keeping strategic work in-house.

Most schools need some combination of all three. The worst approach is expecting current staff to somehow do more without any of these adjustments.

Making the case to leadership

Technology budgets compete with every other school priority. Making a compelling case requires speaking in terms leadership understands:

Risk, not features. “Without this investment, here’s what could happen” matters more than “here’s what this technology can do.”

Total cost of ownership. Include implementation, training, support, and eventual replacement. First-year cost is rarely the full picture.

Comparison to peers. What are similar schools spending? How does your technology capability compare? Boards understand competitive positioning.

Impact on mission. How does this investment support teaching and learning? What becomes possible that wasn’t before?

A word on AI

AI tools are creating new budget pressure. Teachers want access. Students expect it. But enterprise AI isn’t free.

Before budgeting for AI:

• Determine what problems AI will actually solve
• Evaluate privacy and compliance implications
• Get realistic pricing for education-appropriate tools
• Consider total cost including training and support

AI for the sake of AI isn’t a strategy. AI that solves specific educational problems might be worth the investment.

Getting help

If you’re a business officer at a St. Louis private school trying to make sense of technology budgets, you’re not alone. These decisions are genuinely complex, and most financial leaders didn’t train for them.

We work with school finance and operations teams to evaluate technology spending, identify opportunities for optimization, and build sustainable budget frameworks. Happy to have a conversation about what that might look like for your school.