PRINCE ALBERT — The end of the life cycle for Windows 10 has created the necessity to purchase new laptops in the Prince Albert Catholic School Division.
Microsoft is ending support for Microsoft 10 on Oct. 14, 2025. For security purposes, hardware must transition to Microsoft 11.
According to an update delivered by CFO Greg McEwen to the board of education on Monday, the division has 300 laptops that cannot migrate to Microsoft 11.
"We have a five-year cycle on our technology because that's really the lifespan of most technology,” Education Director Lorel Trumier explained. “This is coming a little bit earlier than we anticipated because of Windows 11.”
Because this was anticipated, administration tested the 300 laptops. Those tests showed the laptops would slow down when upgraded to Microsoft 11.
“The specs of our laptops indicated that we were able to install Windows 11,” Trumier said. “It's our IT department that did a considerable amount of testing. What it does is it slows down those machines to a crawl, which makes them ineffective.”
After this was discovered, administration gathered information on replacing roughly 300 laptops for the 2024-25 fiscal year. According to McEwen’s report, the division would have to put out a request for quotations now to obtain the best pricing in a market that could be impacted by tariffs.
This was also done to ensure sufficient time to configure and distribute the laptops to schools ahead of the 2025-26 school year.
Administration has taken the steps to obtain pricing quotes from potential suppliers for 300 laptops. A request for quotations was posted on SaskTenders on March 18.
The division did not budget for the replacement of 300 laptops this fiscal year. Administration recommended use of funds from the Computer Hardware Reserve, the Non-Capital Reserve and/or the Classroom and Equipment reserve to fund this purchase.
Trumier said they presented the purchase to the board because it was not part of the 2024-2025 budget and they wanted to be proactive about the purchase.
“It's a good business decision and we need to ensure that our students have the tools they need to learn and our board was prepared to support that,” she said.
The board approved the motion to approve the use of reserve funds in the 2024-2025 fiscal year to purchase laptops.
