The Omaha, Nebraska school district is spending its federal stimulus funds and then some on the purchase of more than 54,000 iPads for students, with officials citing the “high probability” classes will resume online in the fall.

The Omaha Public Schools board approved the $27.6 million purchase of 54,400 iPads in an 8-0 vote on Monday as a means to help students overcome slow Wi-Fi and limited access to devices that has prevented some from participating since schools closed in March, the Omaha World-Herald reports.

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OPS Superintendent Cheryl Logan told the board there’s a “high probability” schools would remain closed in the fall, and the district wants to be prepared.

According to the World-Herald:

Bryan Dunne, executive director of information management services for OPS, said the iPads will be district-issued and managed, including apps and content.

IPads were selected over other devices or laptops because the district already uses them, they have cellular data capability and they were cheaper than other options, Dunne said. District officials also said they are at the mercy of the supply chain and had to make sure they could get the devices in time for school.

“We need to get this approved, so that we are in the queue with this particular vendor to get this moving,” Logan said, according to KETV.

The superintendent did not explicitly state the district would remain closed down in the fall, but acknowledged it was a “high probability.”

“We can 100% expect there will be spot outages where we have to close classrooms, schools because we have cases,” she said.

“Are we purchasing these because we are in anticipation that we may not be able to start right away in August?” board member Lou Ann Goding questioned.

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“If my crystal ball was working that well, it would be great,” Logan said. “I don’t know.”

OPS officials expect to receive between $20 million and $24 million from the federal CARES Act to cover part of the $27 million expense, though there’s other associated costs for cellular service, the World-Herald reports.

The purchase came the same day Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts insisted students will return to school in the fall during a press conference on the coronavirus.

“It’s not going to look like it did last fall when students came back,” Ricketts said. “There will have to be steps with regard to social distancing, but being able to start doing that and planning now I think is going to be important.”

Board members questioned whether it was wise to make a bulk purchase of devices, rather than phasing in use to make replacing aging devices easier down the road. Similar iPads-for-all initiatives in large school districts, such as Los Angeles, have resulted in disaster, with some students bypassing protections to access prohibited content, others losing or destroying devices.

“It’s one that worries me a little bit, in the sense that we are making a large purchase and there are a lot of devices going out to students at one time,” Dunne said.

But the IT director argued iPads have a proven reliability in the district, with some purchased in 2011 still in use.

“We know that there is some durability, some ruggedness, in terms of longevity of use,” he said.