School districts consume huge amounts of energy.  But as much as we wanted to turn green talk into action, it was difficult to do with our aging buildings, large installed infrastructure, and rapidly growing student population. The perfect opportunity came with a bond measure in 2006 that gave us a chance to remake our technology program with a new green vision. We built architecture around virtual desktops--and that has resulted in huge cost savings and considerable energy reductions.

We recently completed a two-year rollout of new technology that could be a model for any district that is struggling to upgrade, improve, and expand technology, while at the same time trying to hold down or cut costs. At Judson Independent School District, we saved $2 million on the cost of traditional computing equipment, quadrupled the number of student computing seats, and cut energy costs by 73 percent. This was made possible by implementing virtual desktops.

Remaking our technology program was an opportunity as vast as the problem we set out to address for our 21,000-student school district on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. In 2006, voters approved a sizeable bond measure for Judson ISD that earmarked more than $8 million for technology. This came none too soon, as almost every computer in the district at that time was at least six years old and needed replacing. The student ranks were swelling as well, with growth exceeding 5 percent in each of the two prior years and showing no signs of stopping, meaning we also had to add to our computing capacity.

But the solution wasn't as simple as just buying new--and more--computers. We didn't have enough electrical capacity  to power them. Classrooms in many of Judson ISD's older school buildings couldn't support more than a couple of computers each and rewiring to boost capacity was simply too expensive. Adding computers would also increase the heat load, translating into additional air conditioning costs--a potentially massive expense in southern Texas. 

More computers also meant the likelihood of more support and maintenance problems. Adding to our IT staff wasn't an option as the bond measure wasn't an ongoing budgetary increase, and extended warranties for computers were too costly. In addition, the classrooms and libraries where we wanted to install new equipment had limited network capacity. Expanding the infrastructure at that level with additional cabling and network switches was simply too costly a proposition as well.

These limitations led us to consider a variety of options, including thin clients, laptops, and Linux. Moving to open source Linux software on both new and existing computers would save on some software, but not all of it would have been free. And that route wouldn't solve the problem of access to electricity and the need for expanding the network infrastructure. It would also create more service and support issues, particularly as teachers and staff learned the new software.