Managing Back to School, Tariffs, and Your Budget

Welcome everyone.

Today we are going to be talking about managing back

to school tariffs and your budget.

So a very exciting

and timely topic as we are kicking off the beginning

of the school year, and we've got

some great presenters for you.

So I'm actually gonna start here with Daisy.

So Daisy has been a long time Atlas member, um,

recently retired,

and now she's got this whole second career

as a senior collaborator with educational collaborators

and her partners over there.

So we've got Michael Carson, y'all know him again.

He's been around at the Atlas community for a long time.

He's their director of sales at Educational collaborators.

And we also have Brandon Birch.

Brandon is the senior manager of product, uh, the portfolios

for K 12 at STS Education.

So y'all, first of all, tell us the connection here

between STS education and educational collaborators.

Give us a little bit of context of who you are, what you do

as we go into today's topic.

Sure, sure. Thank you, Ashley.

Well, it's great to be here

and I, I know many of you in the Atlas community.

Uh, my name is Michael, and

before becoming a part of educational collaborators,

I was a technology director at

the McLean School of Maryland.

I was at Sidwell Friends School, the Haverford School,

started out with a career in music,

and I came to educational collaborators to really be able

to work with more schools

and help schools get the best value out of the technology

that they've purchased.

Right? Y'all know, you spend a lot of money on technology,

and we help schools really make sure

that's being used strategically

and ultimately to improve certain student learning outcomes.

Um, educational collaborators has been around

for almost 20 years, uh, founded by Alex Inman, many of who,

uh, many of you know Alex, um, from Atlas conferences

and working with your schools.

And about five years ago,

educational collaborators became a part

of Pacific OneSource, which is a

national company headquartered in California.

And Pacific OneSource is now, um, where,

where educational collaborators is a part of.

And, uh, STS education, um,

is also a part of Pacific OneSource.

We're kind of like different

departments in the same company.

And Brandon, who you'll be hearing from, is from STS

and STS helps schools get the hardware they need

for their technology programs, laptops, interactive boards,

networking equipment, things like that.

Um, so we've got educational collaborators, STS education

and, uh, edu tech group as well, which can kind of help you

with, uh, your networking needs.

So, uh, we are thrilled to be here, Ashley.

Um, and I think with that, we'll,

we'll jump right into our presentation.

Um, and I'll hand it over to you,

Daisy, to kind of set the stage.

And, and I know, you know, maybe many schools yet,

you're not experiencing some of these issues with tariffs,

but it's kind

of the thing we're, we're starting to forecast.

So I'll, I'll hand it over to Daisy. Yeah,

Thank you Michael. And

welcome everybody. Uh, I'm not an expert on tariffs,

I'm gonna just say that upfront,

but, um, I've been learning about it quite a bit

and wanting to know more about how tariffs are going

to affect independent schools

and, um, technology departments and apartments

and the departments across the schools as well.

Uh, and I thought we just start at the very beginning of

what our tariffs, just to make sure

that we're all on the same page

and that everybody understands what they are.

I, uh, you know, had to go look it up, uh, when I was sort

of diving into it, just to make sure I understand exactly

what they were, so I don't need to read it to you,

but this is sort of the, uh, standard of, um,

the definition of tariffs and by Forbes Magazine.

So I think that's a, a solid place to start.

And the pur one purpose of the terrorist is

to protect dome domestic businesses, um,

from lower price foreign competition.

And so in this case, the United States is, um, tariff,

taring, other countries.

So, um, let's see. If we go onto the, how do tariffs work?

The next slide,

Y'all, I'm so sorry.

I touched something and I believe I've messed up

our, our slides for a second.

Gimme just one moment. I'm sorry.

No worries. Yeah. All good.

I've got have the set up across two monitors

and I bumped something

and it is not happy with me. Just a second.

We know how that goes. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, we have,

as we kind of get into the presentation, there's a lot of,

uh, really interesting examples of

where this is starting to affect schools.

And, um, it,

it's not hugely, uh, an issue for all schools yet,

but it's, it's starting to become it, particularly if, um,

there's certain products that are really important to you,

um, that happen to be affected at this time.

And Brandon's gonna talk a lot more about that,

uh, as we get into things.

Um, I was just talking to, oh, there we go. Are we back?

Yes, I think so. I need to get us in the right spot.

Uh, my apologies, y'all.

No, you're good. That's fine. No, it's fine.

So these, how do tariffs work? So I'll let you read this.

I don't need to read it all to you,

but I'll give you a moment to look at that.

Sorry, I was trying to resize this so

that I could actually have my little cues,

and it is not happy with me today.

All right. I'm leaving it alone.

That'll work just fine. Yeah.

So the idea here being that, uh, that protecting domestic,

the idea for the United States is protecting domestic

businesses, however, that,

and that can also help reduce our budget deficit

because we are bringing in more income, um,

from those tariffs.

But it can also have a, uh, impact on economic growth

as consumers no longer have the option

to buy a previously lower priced product, uh,

or a form made product,

or even a product that is ma mainly wholly, not wholly made,

made in the United States, but uses, um,

products from other countries.

And so if they can't get a certain part, uh,

then they can't con, uh, they can't make that product,

or it takes longer to make that product.

So there's a impact from reduced spending.

Uh, it's, uh, independent schools are gonna have to like,

reduce their spending because things are going to cost more.

And then how have tariffs recently changed?

On the next slide, I thought this was really interesting, in

that from January, 2025,

the effective tariff rate was 2.2%,

and then that climbed in July of 2025, just recently to,

um, 9.7%, which is an increase of over 342%,

which is, you know, fourfold, right?

So effective tariff rate is the average tariff sort

of tax on import goods, imported goods expressed

as a percentage of the total value of import.

So that effective tariff rate, you know, has shot up, um,

fourfold 342%, which is, you might seem like 2.2% versus

up to, uh, the 9.7% isn't huge.

But in, in the, in the scheme of things at the 3, 340 2%,

that is a huge jump in, in, you know, very, very short time.

And so this sort of graphs sort of gives you an idea

of the different tariffs that the different, uh, sectors,

uh, pharmac, cuticles, semiconductors, steel

and aluminum auto vehicles, auto parts,

and then the overall average.

So you can see that in the sort

of little right hand corner of this slide.

And you'll notice that steel

and aluminum are the highest at 4 41 0.2%.

And of course this ISS again as of July of 2025.

So, um, they're putting out more numbers now, now for,

for September, but this is the most recent that I found.

And so with all the calculations, and so steel

and aluminum may, well, you might say, well, semiconductors,

it's only 2.2%, uh, increase.

But certainly other components within, uh,

technology products include steel

or aluminum, mostly aluminum, which then, uh, would impact,

uh, the cost of those products.

So, um, another thing about effective tur rate is that,

as far as making sure you understand

that piece is if you import a hundred dollars worth of goods

and you pay $2.22

and 20 cents in tariffs,

then the effective tariff rate is 2.2%.

So just kind of clarifying that piece too.

So in light of all that, um, I wanted to turn it over

to Brandon, who can then sort

of take the information about tariffs

and then how is that impacting what he's seeing at STS

and the, uh, product, uh,

manufacturers that he's working with. Thank you. Yeah,

Thank you. Um,

just so for some more background too, as mentioned,

I'm currently sitting as the senior manager

of product portfolio, so working with pretty much all

of the vendors that we work with here at Estes Education.

Um, but my background does also come from

the vendor side of things.

So I was a senior technical product manager for, um,

a large IFP manufacturer in the industry.

And, um, definitely got to see the impacts

of tariffs from both sides of the equation.

Um, as you know, mentioned on this slide here, we're,

we're definitely seeing a lot of unique

issues across the board.

Um, market volatility is one of the biggest things.

Um, you know, we're definitely in some unprecedented times

where, although it's starting to stabilize a bit these days,

you know, there is a period of time there where day

by day there was new legislation, new regulation coming out

around tariffs, and so it really started

to push manufacturing into new directions.

Um, it's had a significant impact, obviously,

on the manufacturers to source parts to figure out where

to actually place their manufacturing, uh, locations.

Um, product availability has been very interesting both on

the, uh, surplus side of things

where companies are sometimes kind of gambling

and overstocking on certain products,

but then also, uh, running out of products.

Um, and as, as Daisy mentioned, you know,

you might look at it and say, okay, well, you know,

the tariff on a, a TV or an electronic is one thing,

but I think it's really important

to also consider the upstream, um, pieces of that, right?

When you're looking at all

of the components like semiconductors

that go into making the bigger thing, um, you know, that

that unique issue really starts to grow

and kind of compound in various different ways.

Um, and then as Michael can speak to too,

obviously enrollment changes have definitely had a

big impact of late.

Um, so I'll pass it over Mike real quick.

Sure, sure. And I think, um,

this is just affecting different schools in different

markets, but as the economy changes,

so does the need for funding

maybe being prioritized more towards, say,

financial aid in a school instead of other budgets,

which could, which could impact technology, um,

in certain areas, in certain regions, again, depending on

how the local economy is being affected by tariffs

and other industries can, can impact, um,

families' abilities to send their children's

to independent schools.

Again, not necessarily a crisis

or not necessarily affecting every market,

but like we maybe saw in, in a bigger sense,

say back in 2008 with enrollment shifting in private school.

There's, there's gonna just always be some movement when

there is, uh, a major economic shift.

Yeah. And it's, we're at the beginning of it, so it's kind

of hard to say how that will impact schools,

but it's something to, to be aware of for sure.

Yeah. Thanks,

Michael. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And so one of the things I really wanted to try

and help kind of paint a picture

around is when we talk about these market dynamics,

getting a little bit more specific into some of the things

that maybe aren't always top of mind, um, you know,

when making a purchasing decision

or, you know, uh, trying

to really understand why those prices

are fluctuating so much.

So obviously market volatility is, is one

of the biggest issues right now that we're seeing.

Um, you know, because of these tariffs,

prices are fluctuating almost on a daily basis.

You know, you can get a quote one week

and find that that quote or

that price is skyrocketed the next week

because of, uh, a shift

or a new tariff that's been put in place.

Um, you know,

and when we talk about these nuanced obstacles, it's not

as simple as, oh, you know,

this part is no longer available, right?

It, it gets more into the geopolitical relationships

that we're seeing across the board.

And, and as we solve in a lot more frequency, I think, uh,

towards the beginning of, of this year, you know, day

by day, these things can change.

Um, from a manufacturing perspective, one

of the biggest things that we have seen

and that we're hearing and talking with our OEMs

and our vendors, um, is, is really

around the manufacturing side of things.

If we take a out the component availability in the

individual component conversation right now, um, you know,

I have some OEMs who have moved their warehousing about four

or five times in the last six months.

You know, uh, companies that maybe had warehouses in China

moved to Taiwan initially when the, the Taron, you know, uh,

Chinese imported goods was in place.

Um, and then as Taiwan

and other countries started getting hit,

Vietnam became the next best place

to move your manufacturing.

Um, and then finally Mexico for a lot

of these companies, Mexico and Canada.

And so one of the things to kind

of take into consideration there is while they're doing all

of that to move their manufacturing,

that doesn't come for free, right?

They're, they're having to build new factories

to either bring in people to work there

or train new people to work there.

So the downstream impacts of that start to compound, right?

You're, you're having to have delays in availability

of goods because of this change in manufacturing, right?

Those, those warehouses don't get spun up overnight, uh,

as much as these companies are trying to.

Um, but unfortunately

that then comes out in the increased cost that we're seeing

for some of these products.

Um, in addition to the product availability

and component availability.

Um, so going back to that, you know, semiconductor example

or the aluminum example, um, in addition

to sometimes there being these impacts on the

end device, right?

Um, small changes to a component may eventually

start to see an impact.

Um, most recently, uh, DDR four, uh, memory,

uh, ram for certain devices, there was a shortage, um, due

to a lot of these impacts.

And so companies with a lot more weight

and a lot more, uh, flexibility, were able to kind

of claim those in the market.

Uh, and due to that, we started

to see certain devices become no longer available from

certain companies because they were lower on the chopping

block when it came to them getting the, uh, parts

and components available for certain devices.

Um, and so unfortunately, it's really just become kind

of this thing where day by day, right,

there might be a product you're purchasing,

but that goes end of life

or is no longer available in stock,

even though there was stock when you started the

conversation, right?

Things are starting to kind of really be, uh,

more volatile just in the purchasing side of things.

Um, the ways that then downstream we're trying to,

um, tackle this kind

of comes from the three different, uh, sides.

So we have our OEMs, we have our, uh, you know, our vendors,

the people who are manufacturing

and building the things like a laptop Lenovo, let's say,

or a Promethean a a smart, uh, Samsung.

You have your distributors who they're typically selling

through the channel, and then you have the resellers,

like STS education who are kind of the end user relationship

with the customers in each of those groups, right?

There's a bit of a gamble that everyone is trying

to play on in terms of product availability, um, forecasting

as to what they think based on orders, based on desire.

Um, the, the, the products, uh, need will be, so how many

to basically order each time they place an order, um,

and how quickly they'll be able to go through those.

Um, at the distributor level.

They're then buying, you know, containers or,

or shipments to then have in their warehouses.

Um, and they're again, making a gamble on

how many they should be placing the orders

for in stock in house.

Uh, and then lastly, at the resale level,

unless we're buying direct

and doing drop shipping, sometimes we'll try

and, um, you know, take stock of items

that we think are hot sellers

or that our customers are really wanting in order to ease

that kind of transition of the tariffs, right?

If we can buy something in December

before, you know, the tariffs hit in January, um, you know,

we're a little more into price fix situation

where we can provide better pricing to our,

our customers in the market.

Um, and so this is kind of where, as we start to see how

to plan in the next slides, keeping all

that in mind I think really, really comes into play.

Um, so on the left, obviously there are some ways

that we can do an offset, some of the costs.

Um, but the big thing I really wanna talk about in terms

of proactive purchasing is the best way to,

I think get ahead of this is to really understand

what your needs are as soon as possible

and begin having those conversations with your sales reps,

with your, the vendors that you're working with,

with the resellers that you're working with,

whether it be direct or through a reseller network, um, so

that they can get that into their forecast.

Um, if you know that in six months you're gonna be looking

at a refresh of devices, the sooner you start talking about

that with, um, you know, the people that you purchase from,

the sooner that they can start working

that into their funnel and then have better data to plan

for what may be coming.

Um, alternatively, it might be something where let's say,

you know, there's a specific model that you're looking for

and, um, you know, based on what we've been hearing

or seeing in the market, we know

that it may no longer be available

by the time you're looking to purchase.

You can either use some

of the other tools we have here in productive purchasing to

maybe buy that sooner when it is available,

or begin to plan to, uh, look at alternatives down the line,

um, to kind of find something comparable

to what you're looking at.

Um, a good example of this is, uh,

we have had customers recently who are looking

to do projector refreshes.

Um, they have Ben Q projectors,

and we started the conversation with Ben Q to say, Hey,

they're looking in a couple months to do this refresh.

Ben Q came back to us

and said, we are no longer selling projectors.

We have pulled outta the projector game entirely due

to the cost of tariffs impacting the pricing

of getting these sourced and into the, the market.

Um, and so that's definitely a big one, right?

There are companies per the previous slide

that are making decisions to pull entire product lines out

of their portfolio due to the impacts

that they're seeing on tariffs

or, you know, the return on investment of trying

to kinda keep this product line available.

Um, and so with that, right, that's where we can start to,

to make those transitions,

to have those bigger conversations of alternatives

or, uh, again, planning to kind

of see if there are creative ways that we can find that.

Um, obviously to offset cost of tariffs, that's another way

that you can approach some of this.

Sometimes, you know, uh, you really want a certain device

and that's what you've been using,

and, you know, getting away from

that is gonna be too difficult.

Well, now we can look at ways to kind of offset the cost

of maybe the increased tariffs.

Um, so companies like STS, uh, we have a VR programs

or buyback programs where we can definitely, uh,

defray the cost of new

by buying back some of your old technology.

Um, we actually do a lot of second life business as well,

where we refurbish technology, um, you know, get it nice

and cleaned up and, uh, you know, new tech

and gear inside of them to bring them

to the level of a new device.

And so that's another way that you can start to offset some

of those costs by looking at maybe old refurbished devices

versus brand new.

Um, and then getting creative with financing.

There are a lot of really interesting ways that we can work,

um, you know, with your CFO

and then through vendors to provide financing options

for certain devices if, again, buying now isn't an option.

Uh, and then lastly, on the far right, I'm sure Michael

and Daisy can speak more to this,

but, uh, conducting a tech audit, right?

We talked about kind of the proactivity of this, you know,

speaking with your, uh, your reps as early as possible

to get ahead of the conversation.

Um, a tech audit is a great way to do that.

So, um, I know, uh,

companies like education collaborators can help work

with you to create a tech audit,

but essentially what it can do is it can look at the kind

of 360 degree view

of your school's needs from a technology perspective, um,

and come up with a three to five year plan for how to get

and meet the objectives that you're looking, uh, to set.

So if you don't necessarily have that roadmap of

what you're gonna be meeting in a year or six months,

or, you know, three years down the line, um,

tech audits can really help put that plan in place together.

That way you can begin having those conversations

and begin preparing for what may come two,

three years down the road.

Um, so these are definitely some options that we have here.

Again, you know, there are

companies like Education Collaboration

and SST s out there that have resources to,

to work with you through this.

And so I definitely encourage you to, uh, to reach out,

you know, if there are questions, if there is help needed

around some of these decisions.

Um, you know, I think the whole purpose of this call is

to really let you know, like we,

we are seeing this every day as well, right?

I know that buying technology might not be your

day-to-day job.

You've got hundreds of hundreds

of other things going on in your schools

and with your students and staff

and teachers that I'm sure take up most of your brainpower.

And so, um, you know, this is where we can definitely come

and help and, and be that guidance in a lot of ways.

'cause ultimately that's our goal, um, is to,

to really make sure, at least at s st s

that you guys are getting the technology that you need

and the solutions that will work

for your school holistically.

Brandon, I have a question, uh, really too, yeah.

Uh, refurbished, uh, items, yeah.

I know that sometimes that brings a little bit

of nervousness to, uh, US tech directors that, uh, oh,

if I buy something refurbished, it's not gonna be

as good or last as long.

Can you speak to that as far as, uh, the longevity

and maybe what guarantees there might be, you know, uh,

warranties available, that kind of thing?

Yeah, definitely. We have an entire second life division

here at STS Education.

Um, you know, all of our refurbished technology goes

through an extensive testing and evaluation process, similar

to, um, even our new devices.

In some cases we'll run

through if we're doing white glove servicing, um, testing

and benchmarking against them

to make sure that they're up to standards.

So, um, we do benchmarks

and all of our devices, we have grades

and all their, our devices as well when it comes to

that actual cost and output.

Um, and then we provide a warranty as well for all

of our second Life devices.

So, um, I can definitely provide a, uh, more information on

that in the form of one page that we have

for our second life solutions for anyone

that's interested on the call, um,

that goes into more in detail on what we have.

Um, and if there are questions, um, just

because I'm not the expert on Second Life, I would love

to maybe involve, um, our second life manager

who can really speak to, I think,

more holistically everything that we have, uh, available

for our refurbished solutions.

Thank you.

Great. Thank you, Brandon. Yeah.

Um, I think we can, yeah, hop on here.

And, um, so Brandon really has, uh,

such an interesting kind of vantage point I think

in this conversation because he is working with vendors

so closely, um, to support SDS customers

and, you know, questions like, uh, like Daisy

that you raised sort of around second life.

And, um, you know, these are the kind of times

where sometimes we just have

to do things a little bit differently than we're used to

and consider other options.

Um, there's a lot of unknown,

and so it's not necessarily about now kind of figuring out

how to handle that, but just starting to think about

what are the different ways, um, to be prepared

and to be nimble enough to handle a shift in, in pricing.

I'm, I'm here at a school in, in Maryland right now,

and so I was talking to them about, you know,

have you guys seen, uh, major shifts in pricing?

And this, there's starting to see some, uh, increase,

but nothing that's caused, uh, the need for a major shift.

Nothing that's broken the bank yet,

but that is happening in some areas

and it's, it's something to be, to be mindful of.

So, um, I just wanted to kind of go over some of the things

that I think are really important to consider in order to be

flexible and adaptable, uh, in this time.

Um, communication and change management, right?

Are you letting folks know in your community what's going on

in the EdTech space with,

with purchasing and with procurement?

Um, having those conversations with your business manager,

with your head of school,

with the folks in the finance office, um, around

shifts in market volatility.

Are you kind of really thinking about

what are the purchasing needs over the next 2, 3, 4, 5 years

to maybe get ahead of some potential issues?

The communication isn't just internally, right?

So it's also communicating more with your vendors

and becoming familiar with maybe more vendors in your area.

Uh, as Brandon mentioned, different

companies are taking different strategies towards

anticipating issues with tariffs.

Different companies are buying large amounts of stock

of certain things that they might anticipate are gonna be

affected because of things like DDR four.

Memory, for example, is something

that's affected by tariffs.

And so what products are using that

and would be a good thing to know if, if yours are,

and that might be a question for your vendors, um,

communicating with the school community at large,

just even if it's not about tariffs,

making sure those communication channels are there

with the academic side of the house

that are using these devices that you're purchasing,

or if these are costs

that maybe are being passed onto your families, either

through A-B-Y-O-D program by a tech fee,

uh, things like that.

Again, maybe not getting too deep into the topic

of tariffs at this moment,

but are you able to have that dialogue?

Uh, are they, are you gonna be able

to communicate them efficiently as things progress?

And that kind of leads nicely into this, you know, setting

of expectations, particularly as we get

through this year and start

to anticipate the upcoming purchasing season

for next school year.

I know it's maybe crazy to say

and suggest to be thinking about next school year right now,

'cause I know all of you are probably have a line out your

door of people that need things

yesterday for this start of school.

Um, but starting to, you know,

if you do have a big device refresh coming up, um,

after this school year starting to talk about maybe, um,

just broadening the device discussion

because we don't know in say, six months when you're going

to place that purchase, uh,

what manufacturers will be affected.

And so if you spent all year, say, evaluating devices

and you've chosen a certain device,

and that device happens to be the one that's being affected

by tariffs and pricing it outta the market,

or availability becoming a challenge, um,

just being prepared with some more backup solutions

and making sure folks know of those possibilities, right?

There's, uh, nothing worse than setting up the whole faculty

to be excited about this new device

that you're gonna have for the next year.

And, oops, we can't get it, but we got this one instead.

Right? Very different outcome, uh,

if they've been prepared for that or not.

Take the time to do your research, right?

This is, these are new market dynamics.

Um, you are going

to be the expert in your school on technology purchasing,

which by the way, might affect other departments.

Maybe it affects the facilities department, right?

Because there's a lot of tariffs on steel

and they're certainly purchasing things that contain steel,

or they're purchasing maybe HVAC

or security equipment that might be affected.

So make sure you're doing the research and,

and give yourself the time to do that.

You know, in independent schools, it's, it's not

that long ago that I was a tech director myself,

and, um, you know, we constantly have new things we need

to be working on for a division head

for an upgrade that's happening.

And if you don't carve out the time for you

to do the research to, you know, just be,

just even going online

and preparing for this presentation, there's

so much out there in trade publications on what

to be thinking about around tariffs.

Take the time to have those conversations with your vendors

to understand how they're seeing tariffs currently

or potentially in the future impacting

your needs, right?

Make sure you are letting them know

what you're thinking about in terms of purchasing

for the next few years and, and,

and kind of start cataloging that.

And don't just, um, you know, don't,

don't put yourself in a position where,

where you're too busy helping other people

to really do the research here, make the time for it, um, so

that you can feel confident

and not as stressed out in the unknown.

And really know who your stakeholders are, right?

Know the people in the school

who could potentially be affected by tariffs,

because they're also the folks that are the solution, right?

They're the folks that are gonna help identify alternatives.

Those are the folks that are gonna find ways

to use what you've got.

Um, in the meantime, they're the ones that, um, you know,

you can motivate to take better care of the laptops to take,

um, to take better stock of what they have.

So, really take that time.

And, you know, in, in the field of technology, I think one

of the advantages, uh, of it is that as a technology leader,

you are dealing with change, um, much more than a lot

of other folks in your school.

You're dealing with new platforms all the time.

You're dealing with new regulations all the time.

Uh, you're dealing with policy changes.

Um, you're dealing with updates

that change the way you do your job

or change the way you use a system.

So also just remembering that

you have spent many years being flexible and adaptable,

and these tariff considerations are just another aspect

of the part of the work that you've already been doing.

So there's some just practical considerations.

And Ashley, if you can take it to the next slide there,

um, that I wanted to mention.

And again, these are just things that are coming out

of what's in the literature.

So this is just out of, uh,

advisement from North Carolina State University in the

article that they published.

So be sure to be asking your vendors about

tariffs and making sure that all

of those costs are captured in quotes.

You're getting, because things are changing so often.

Uh, things might not be making it into the, the quotes

that you're projecting and basing

your budget planning off of.

So just ask those questions.

I think vendors are probably starting

to get those questions,

and I think that they're probably gonna be ready

to answer them, but hold them accountable

and make sure you're getting total pricing,

the most current pricing,

and any tariffs that might, um, also be charged that

that's very clear.

And make sure that that's clear in contract languages,

particularly, um, you know, thinking about lease agreements

and financing agreements, making sure

that those are being set up in a way that's gonna work

for you and not, you know, based on the,

the market price at the time of the end

of the lease being this astronomical cost

to retain your devices.

Um, so again, just it's really about just asking these

questions, um, making sure you have things in writing

and that, and that things are clear.

And, um, if you wanna move on to the next slide here,

and, you know, uh, Daisy made this point

as we were planning, and so Daisy, feel free to chime in,

but in a lot of ways, we've been here before, right?

We dealt with supply chain challenges

during the COVID pandemic.

We, we dealt with a huge demand for different types

of technology that's very different than

they had been in the past.

Uh, luckily, uh, we're, we're, we're also not dealing

with a lot of things that we had to deal with during COVID.

So it's not all of that,

but we've dealt with having challenges,

getting the things we need in time before,

and we have that experience and our faculty and our staff

and our families and our students also have that experience.

And while we wanna make things as smooth as possible,

we can engage them in ways that maybe we couldn't have

before the pandemic in terms of the resilience,

uh, to uncertainty.

Um, and so just hopping right along, um,

some next steps to consider.

Uh, we've mentioned a lot of things

that you can just do, right?

Having that dialogue with your vendors,

having the dialogue internally, just kind of going out there

and seeing what trade publications are saying.

As Brandon mentioned earlier, this is a great time

to start auditing your technology program,

because that's gonna start to just make very clear for you

and show you, um, the different areas that you want

to be having forethought around purchasing.

Um, so the Atlas 360 for members, I, that's available

to you, uh, for non-members, it's an easy purchase.

Yep. Ashley's got the link there.

Uh, educational collaborators help

contribute to that as well.

That 360 audit, that's gonna help you look

through all aspects of your program.

That can be a time consuming task,

a certainly a valuable exercise.

Um, educational collaborators and other companies as well.

We offer a technology audit where we give you three

to five years worth of budgeting recommendations, uh,

from a third party perspective.

So consider bringing in someone to take a sort

of unbiased third party perspective

at what's going on in your school, particularly around, uh,

your infrastructure, your hardware,

and making sure that's tariff proof

or that you have a plan for that.

And creating a rolling technology plan.

I think, you know, a lot of times strategic planning, uh,

in areas is kind of,

you make the plan and then you follow it.

But in the technology space, um,

that isn't always applicable, right?

You wanna have forethought,

you wanna have a forward thinking plan,

but you need to bake into that plan.

The assumption, uh, the change will occur.

And just like the time we're in right now, it's, it's

so important to kind of know what your mission is

as a technology department, uh, to have that aligned

with the current mission of your school,

what each division's goals are, what your all school goals

and visions are, and making sure you're

aligning technology up with that.

But making sure that it's set up to be flexible, that, um,

you can maybe meet different pedagogical goals

using different types of hardware.

It doesn't necessarily have

to be the manufacturer you've always had

or the brand you've always had,

or this, the refresh cycle you've expected.

There's ways to pivot and adapt

and just sort of setting the expectation

for change in adaptation, uh, is even more important.

Now, given what's, what's been happening with tariffs,

and I know we have a couple folks listening if you

want to drop in the chat.

Have you experienced, uh, any challenges

with purchasing around tariffs?

Have you heard anything from your vendors to anticipate?

Just go ahead and pop that in the chat as we, uh,

move on here and I'll, I'll hand it over to Daisy.

Yeah, so I was trying to bring everything we said

altogether and, and, uh, give you a little roadmap here.

It's for future planning

and sort of just outlines the different processes

and steps that you might take to be able to address,

uh, these uncertainties.

And as, uh, Michael said, uh,

we've been here in the uncertainty before,

and there are some things that we can do.

We probably learned from having managed, uh,

supply chain issues in COVID ID that we can apply,

uh, to today.

Uh, and one thing I would emphasize as,

as I think Michael said

before, is that the budget process really is getting started

again already, right?

So tuition is gonna be set, uh, in probably November,

December, depending on your school.

And so when tuition is set, that sort

of sets the budget cycle for the coming year,

depending on your fiscal year.

And so needing to have the, again, we keep sort

of reiterating this, but I think it's important

about having those vendor conversations as soon as possible

so that you can understand in the next year

or two years what your, what your needs are

and what the vendor can actually deliver and is,

and is available for you to be able to purchase.

And if that cost is going to exponentially increase

and something that you absolutely have to have,

then you're going to need

to figure out in your budget either can you increase the

budget, or there're gonna be areas of your budget

where you're gonna need to eliminate

or cut that cut way back on.

Um, and, and I think also, again, communicating

with your CFOs and with the division heads,

because, uh, in one of the articles that both Michael

and I were reading in the trade publications,

and we can put that in the resources later, was the,

just the one, one school was having to deal with the issue.

That paper had gone up by 120%,

and we all know that teachers love paper, right?

They love copy paper, being able to make copies and,

and all kinds of different paper.

And so to think about, oh, the

a lower school budget is going paper's budget is going up

exponentially because they need to have that paper.

How is that gonna affect the tech budget?

And because the c ffo, of course, is trying to

see across the whole school holistically.

So, uh, again, I think, um, just thinking about determining,

uh, what your budget's going to look like

and then making sure, determining your stakeholders

and your decision making,

who's bringing all those folks together

for regular meetings and check-ins?

Um, I should say that I was, uh,

the tech director at Catlin Gable School,

and I was there for 22 years as tech director for about 10.

And it was super important to be able

to get people together on a regular basis

to help everyone understand what the issues were

that were in front of us,

and make sure that we had time for meetings and check-ins.

So that, 'cause things, as Brandon is saying,

are just moving so quickly and changing so quickly.

Like it feels a little like whiplash, right?

Where like, oh, no, the tariffs are this much.

No, they're that much. No, we're, this is available now.

It's not. And,

and so if you're not bringing your stakeholders along

with you, they're gonna get the whiplash too, right?

They're gonna be like, whoa, you just said x, right?

That this was gonna be available

and we were, this was our plan.

And then poof, no, it's not.

It's all changed because you're trying

to get everything all set up and running ahead and,

and you need, just remember

to bring your stakeholders along with you.

So again, assessing the current landscape, um,

and then deciding your purchases, you know, as best

as you can when we recognize the uncertainty of that.

But having a plan is always good.

And then, you know, writing that plan down,

so at least you have, and you know, Google Docs,

we love Google Docs because then we can see again

where the changes are made.

We made this cha, we started out with this plan and,

and this is the date we had to change it and,

and, and, and pivot.

We all love that word, right?

We use that all the time in COVID,

oh, we're gonna pivot again.

Here we go. You know, we're flying

that plane while we're building it.

And certainly we can learn some things from COVID that,

that we wanna make sure that we're purchasing, uh, as smart

as we can, you know, are the items that we always had used,

like Michael said, do we need those items?

Will we need those items in three years?

You know, there was some, a little bit of, of, we're doing,

again, some, some mass

or bulk buying in trying to protect ourselves,

but then if we do those purchases, will we need to consider

that we might not need those items in three or four years

and then have to offload them.

So it's, it's that sort of delicate balance of,

of figuring out what we actually need

and purchasing it enough, but not purchasing too much.

That I think is, is something that we've learned from COVID

of, of just, and that's again, working with your vendor,

talking to your division heads and teachers

and your CFO to try

to really figure out what's, what's that fine line?

Can I lease it now? You know?

And again, then what are the contract, um,

implications at the end of the lease?

Uh, and then as I said, revise,

and then we rinse and repeat.

We are, we are used to these challenges of,

of new something new's gonna come along, right?

It, and it could be anything from a storm or a hurricane.

Uh, we had a big storm almost two years ago that

just really impacted the school close

part of the school for a while.

It damaged equipment.

You don't know that that's gonna happen.

And then, so again, being able to pivot and be nimble.

And I think one other thing,

and that I wanna speak to about being nimble is

that there can be

a delay in decision making at independent schools.

Like we, we tend to like think and think and, and,

and discuss and maybe make a decision,

but we wanna make sure it's absolutely the right decision.

And then by that time that we've made the decision, yes,

we're going to go for this lease

or this purchase, the, the, the things have changed

as Brandon had alluded to, right?

And so we've missed out on an opportunity

or, uh, we, we don't get the, the pricing

that we were hoping for.

So I think working with everybody,

which is why you're gathering in

and checking in very closely and,

and pretty often to allow you to be able

to be more nimble in your decision making.

And then really clarifying who is the decision maker is

that the director of technology gets the final say, like,

let's go, let's sign this contract, or is that your CFO?

And then if that's your C ffo

and it's not you that you're, you're on top of it

and saying, Hey, we, we've got, we've really gotta,

you know, work on this and make this decision and,

and finalize the decision to, uh,

to keep things running and going.

Uh, so we don't miss out.

So I think just wanting to put a emphasis on that as well.

Yeah, I think, you know, one

of the things I'm just thinking about

as we're talking about future planning,

and it's something, um, you know, I've seen it a lot

of schools where we've, we've audited programs is, uh,

making the recommendation to really make sure so much

of the infrastructure and workflow is device agnostic that,

you know, um, the focus isn't on, you know,

still building a, uh, you know, we have

to build this device specific image, uh,

and then if we switch laptops last minute out of a

procurement issue, we have to start from scratch, right?

Do we have a device agnostic infrastructure?

Do we have a conversation

and dialogue in the academic side that is sort

of tied generally to what we can accomplish with technology

and not tied to a specific manufacturer and product?

All the kinds of things to think about in the long term.

And, and thank you Daisy, for this wonderful roadmap.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hand it over.

Yeah. And then a little bit of a shameless plug here,

but some also examples of where as a vendor, right?

Based on the conversations that we've been having here

and you know, that we have with our customers, um, based on

what we see in the market and kind of where our,

our funnel goes, you know,

we have some opportunities right now where, you know, uh,

we've definitely gone through

and bought stock of things like the Lenovo 100 e

Chromebooks, um, the Samsung 75 inch interactive displays,

the new WF AF line.

Um, again, a lot of this is more so just to show that

through the influence of having conversations

with our customers and where we really see

that there's gonna be a need

and desire, you know, as a vendor, we are making

that decision to buy up stock of some of these

to have a little bit better

pricing, but also have fixed pricing.

Um, you know, when we see a lot more

of the volatility in the market, these are some areas that,

you know, we as a vendor have stepped into try

and address the needs of our customers based

on, again, what we're hearing.

So going back to that roadmap planning, right?

Things like that influence decisions that we're making here,

um, at the end of the day.

And then on the next slide, oh,

I don't know if it made it in or not.

Uh, questions, um, I know we have a,

I'm sure we'll send out this deck.

I've added a separate slide.

Um, it looks like I didn't make it into this revision here,

um, with some of that second life, uh, information days

that you had talked about.

So STS as a whole goes through a, uh, there we go, uh,

a nine step process here.

Um, for all of our laptops

and desktops, we do offer a lifetime parts warranty, um,

in addition to some other warranties in place, uh, obviously

around, uh, the purchasing.

I think for Chrome it's a little bit more

of a limited parts warranty, um, associated with the support

of the OS for that various model.

Um, and then on the right hand side, there's just some kind

of assumptions and facts that we can provide.

So at your own time, um,

I believe we'll share this deck out.

Feel free to look through this.

Uh, we also have on our website,

st.com/refurbished computers.

Um, all this information and more if you have questions, uh,

or feel free to reach out to us.

Brandon, I have a question specifically about

the refurbished computers.

So we talk a lot about technology life cycles,

and I feel like we have several examples

of those when you're using brand new tech, but mm-hmm.

Does that change when you're using the refurbished tech?

And if so, do you have any examples

like the replacement?

That's a good question. Lifecycle.

Yeah. The, the replacement lifecycle of things. Yeah.

Um, yeah, it depends.

Um, you know, I think with the refurbished devices,

obviously from a refresh perspective, it allows you

to maybe still, again, get devices

into your teachers and students' hands.

Some of the things that we talk about in the assumptions

here on our website are, are really that, you know,

while some of these PCs might not be as, um, you know,

high powered as some

of the new devices that you're looking at, right?

The, the best and fastest process or the best ram.

The reality is, especially with student devices, let's say,

are they, are they really needing the most

of that processing power?

And so if you can get a device at 60% of the cost, um,

you know, the refresh cycle probably still has a,

a very similar lifecycle,

but you're maybe working with devices again

that are refurbished and maybe a few, uh, generations behind

what you might've been doing in that new lifecycle.

Um, so, so far, I think in terms of the lifecycle

and when we're seeing the refurbished devices kind of come

through, it's probably very similar lifecycle.

Um, I have some, uh, white papers, I believe

with some customers that we've done some large opportunities

with, um, that I think would be more beneficial to share

as opposed to, you know,

talking through some of this Yeah, sure. In

Those way I'll send them all your way way.

Yep. And we'll include

'em with the archive, but that's great.

I think that that's really great

context for our audience too. Yeah.

F yeah, definitely. In addition, in addition to just the,

um, the second life side of things,

we also do provide some additional technology services

around devices, um, for, um,

essentially getting your devices that you have in place, uh,

a little bit of a refresh, um, without going

through the entire, um, uh, cycle of, you know, buying a,

a refurbished device or buying a new device.

So device reconditioning, computer wellness checks, um,

and then break fix services as well if needed.

So, um, a lot of different services we can provide,

but obviously, yeah, the refurbish definitely is a great way

if you're looking at, um, going through

that lifecycle process entirely.

Well, I think you guys did a really great job today

illuminating exactly why it's so important for schools

to have relationships

and partners that know the independent school market

and that are still having a very high level view

of the trends and looking out,

like proactively buying up some of those, you know, devices

that the schools are in really high demand,

they may have trouble getting on their own.

So, um, we love our partners over at STS education

and then again on the, uh, other side

of things on educational collaborators.

So really, again, they've got both sides

of the house covered so they can help you get your devices

and do all of your, your training,

your support, your tech audits.

Got a lot of great stuff going on there

and a lot of fantastic people.

So thank y'all so much for being here with us today.

We really appreciate you.

And, um, I think that, that,

unless there's any final questions from attendees,

we've got some, uh, kudos.

Oh, thank going in the chat. Thank you Cord people. Yep.

And, and Kimberly, thank y'all so much.

We're, we're glad you were here today, y'all,

I'm gonna go ahead and stop the recording.

Thank you again, all have a great day. All right. Thank you.