CTO expertise at a fraction of the cost
Your school needs strategic technology leadership. You don't necessarily need a $200K+ full-time executive. There's a middle ground.
Who needs a fractional CTO?
Some schools have an IT director who's great at day-to-day operations but needs strategic support. Others are in leadership transition - their tech person left and they're not ready to hire. Some have never had technology leadership at all.
In any of these situations, you might need someone who can:
- • Present to the board in language trustees understand
- • Negotiate with vendors from a position of expertise
- • Develop a multi-year technology roadmap
- • Make sense of conflicting advice from vendors
- • Mentor your existing IT staff
A full-time CTO costs $150-250K with benefits. For a school with $10-20M in revenue, that's often hard to justify. But going without strategic leadership has costs too - bad decisions, missed opportunities, reactive crisis management.
What you get
Weekly strategic sessions
Regular meetings to discuss priorities, problems, and progress. Not just reactive firefighting - proactive planning.
Board meeting support
We'll help prepare technology updates for board meetings and can attend to answer questions. Trustees appreciate having an expert in the room.
Technology roadmap
A clear plan for where your technology should be in 1, 3, and 5 years. Not just a wish list - a realistic path with budget implications.
Vendor management
Contract negotiations, RFP development, vendor selection. We've done this dozens of times - vendors don't intimidate us.
IT team mentorship
If you have IT staff, we can help develop their skills and expand their capabilities. They do the work - we provide strategic guidance.
Emergency support
When something goes seriously wrong - a security incident, a major system failure - you'll have experienced help immediately available.
Typical engagement
- • 4-8 hours per week of strategic time
- • Regular on-site presence (not just remote)
- • Available for emergency calls 24/7
- • Month-to-month engagement (no long-term lock-in)
- • Can scale up or down based on school needs
Pricing
$5,000-10,000
per month
Varies based on hours needed and complexity of your environment. Compare to the $12-20K+ monthly cost of a full-time technology executive.
Talk to an expert