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Mountain Home Public Schools renewed two key software contracts and approved a $232,185.94 Chromebook purchase May 21, with the district’s technology supervisor telling the board that vendor prices keep climbing and that locking in multiyear rates is increasingly the only way to hold costs down.
The board approved all three items, each paid from federal Title I funds.
The largest was the purchase of 650 Chromebooks at $232,185.94 from the bid the district identified as bidder No. 3. Technology Supervisor Steve Mendleski said the price reflects a broader spike in device costs that vendors have blamed on artificial intelligence, a memory shortage and rising processor prices.
“No one is guaranteeing pricing more than a couple weeks right now,” Mendleski said. He said some Chromebooks have climbed to $400 or $500 a unit, and that the purchase includes a deferred-payment option meant to protect the district’s price if the cost rises more than $17 a unit before July 1.
About half the Chromebooks will go to Nelson-Wilks-Herron for a full second-grade cart refresh, with the rest issued to incoming eighth graders, according to the district’s action item. Mendleski said the district is still using Dell Chromebooks bought in 2018 that remain usable because the licensing was extended from five years to 10, though the district loses about five a week to wear.
The board also renewed the district’s contract for Canvas, the learning management system made by Instructure, at $30,420 for the 2026-27 school year. Mendleski said the district has used Canvas for six years and negotiated this year’s increase down from more than 6% to under 3%. The system is used in grades six through 12.
Board members questioned whether Canvas remains the right fit. Mendleski said the company keeps raising prices and acknowledged that some districts have left for cheaper options, including the free Google Classroom, but said switching back is difficult once teachers have built their courses in Canvas. He said Canvas gives parents a cleaner place to track grades and assignments and lets teachers roll courses forward year to year.
The district has already pulled Canvas from its elementary grades to save money in recent years, Mendleski said, and kindergarten through fifth grade currently has no learning management system. One board member suggested the district consider Google Classroom for the younger grades.
Officials said they are also monitoring a data breach at Instructure that affected school and college systems, and want to see it resolved before the new contract period begins in July.
The third renewal was for GoGuardian, the classroom-management and student-safety software the district has used since 2018. Mendleski recommended a three-year commitment at $33,945 a year, locking in a 6% increase rather than the 12% increase the company quoted for a single year. He said the multiyear rate saves the district about $2,000 a year, and that the commitment is not a binding contract the district must see through.
Mendleski said GoGuardian serves several functions. Teachers use it to monitor student screens, the technology department uses it as the district’s internet filter, and a feature called Beacon flags searches related to self-harm or threats, routing those alerts to counselors. A separate Smart Alerts feature sends warnings about explicit content to building principals.
Officials said nearly all of the threat alerts turn out to be false positives but remain worthwhile because they occasionally surface a student who needs help.
“You have the best tool out there, but you’re pricing yourself out of public schools,” Mendleski said he has told the company. He said districts that left GoGuardian to save money often returned the next year because the alternatives did not work as well.
Board member Scott Booth summed up the district’s position on the safety software.
“We have to have it,” Booth said. “There’s no option to it.”
