BUTLER TWP — The Butler School District must step up its technology spending if its students are to be current with mobile devices, according to an assessment by a technology consulting firm.

The school board hired Questec, a Moon Township company, to review the district’s technology department after the retirement of its technology director and the loss of its software coordinator and one of three computer support specialists. The analysis cost $3,750.

“Your number one problem is an aging fleet,” Jeffrey Main, the firm’s chief executive officer, told the school board on May 13.

The district’s desktop and laptop computers and its netbooks have a high failure rate, he said. As a result, the district’s help desk got 14,455 calls over two years, with more than 1,000 calls each September. Some callers waited 20 minutes for help, he said.

The number of calls was higher than he expected, Main said. Calls ranged from requests for toner to technical questions that could be answered by a computer support specialist over the phone. The rest, 3,618 calls, required service.

“Budget is the issue,” he said, a common problem in schools.

The district has 3,700 desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Of those, 81 percent are two to five years old and 11 percent are less than two years old, he said.

In addition, Main said the district needs a dedicated instructional support person to help teachers use technology effectively.

Attendance was voluntary at some technology workshops the district offered to help teaching staff at the secondary level learn to use new technology, especially the district’s interactive white boards, said Brian Slamecka, assistant superintendent, secondary.

Generally, technology professional development in the district is difficult because of the different levels of proficiency among teachers, Slamecka said.

At the elementary level, a lack of technology is a concern.

“There’s just not a ton of technology in the elementary (schools),” Main said.

In the technology department, Questec recommended the district fill the director of technology position; refocus the technology staff job descriptions; create a media support specialist; and streamline its help desk and service structures.

Main complimented the board for its recent decision to spend $710,366 on the district’s telecommunications upgrade that included an internet-based telephone system, new network hardware and other network upgrades, including wireless systems in secondary school auditoriums. But he wants the district to go further.

He encouraged the board to adopt a new vision for district technology, making it an integral partner in education.

“I’m seeing a lot of places where computers get so old it’s difficult to get out of the hole,” Main said, but he does not think the Butler district is in that situation.