At a Committee of the Whole meeting on instruction and technology, trustees recommended the board approve three consent items that included minutes from Oct. 15, 2024, an IT‑support agreement with Global Data Consultants LLC (GDC) of Chambersburg, Pa., and a four‑year VMware license agreement procured through the intermediate unit.

District staff described the GDC agreement as a time‑and‑materials replacement for services previously provided by JLR, with no additional budget requested. District IT staff said, “This is just time and materials, so there's no minimum retainers, no guaranteed hours,” and that work would be billed from the existing pool of funds previously used for JLR. Staff characterized the arrangement as a short‑term replacement while the district accounts for recent retirements and staff turnover in IT.

Why it matters: Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware raised open‑market pricing for virtualization software, prompting a Pennsylvania intermediate‑unit consortium to negotiate education pricing for public school districts. A district board member said the four‑year VCIU agreement was “a huge win,” noting the consortium pricing brought costs closer to prior education rates after increases of 150%–300% reported by many districts following the acquisition. Staff explained the first year will be prorated and that the ongoing years cover license counts and maintenance; typographical errors in the draft contract (year labels and unit counts) were identified and corrected prior to finalization.

Staff clarified the VMware agreement covers virtual servers and infrastructure—virtual machines used for monitoring, applications, safety and camera servers—not individual student laptops or endpoint devices. The GDC relationship also includes a potential managed‑services/retainer option staff are evaluating alongside other competing bids and legal review; that retainer would involve a monthly cost distinct from the initial time‑and‑materials arrangement.

What the committee did: After discussion, committee members moved to advance items a, b and c to the board. A roll‑call recorded committee members Allison Bolt, John Berry, Hector Jacobin, Edward Glass, Gary McHugh, Kyle Moyer, Jay Oliver, Tracy Phillips and Colin as voting 'Yes'; the motion passed.

Next steps: The committee forwarded the agreements to the full board with corrected contract language and staff indicated they will include the new VMware license schedule and the proposed vendor retainer options in forthcoming board materials and monthly audit tracking updates.

Sources and provenance: Committee discussion and staff comments are recorded at SEG 052–076 (GDC), SEG 082–166 (VMware pricing and contract details), SEG 259–267 (managed services/retainer discussion) and SEG 187–209 (motion and roll‑call vote).