In today’s shaky economy, school budgets have been under pressure, and their technology resources have taken a hit. But they’re still making do, with some clever planning.

Technology spending usually takes up about 1.5% to 5% of a school’s budget, according to Bill Rust, research director at Gartner Inc.

But Bob Walton, information systems officer at the Worcester, Mass., school district, said costs have been rising and state and local budget increases just haven’t kept up. In 2002, the district slashed its technology budget from $1.5 million to just $500,000, and it’s stayed at that level since.

School districts are trying to squeeze those dollars any way they can.

Bijaya Devkota, director of technology at the Charles County School District in Maryland, said as a cost-saving measure the district has bought most of its networking and server hardware from Cisco (CSCO) and IBM (IBM) in order to standardize everything.

“No matter what happens these two companies will be around. We didn’t want to buy from 10 companies and down the road deal with some not being around,” he said, adding that this makes it easier to incorporate new products.

The Worcester school district, however, finds it more beneficial to purchase computers through a third party reseller, said Walton, who directed the school to move to refurbished PCs rather than buying brand new ones. These machines save the district hundreds of dollars on each computer they buy. A local reseller provides the district with refurbished Dell (DELL) PCs and will set up the workstations in the schools.

Walton has found he receives better support from the local reseller. “When I call the local reseller, a person I know answers, and I don’t have to go through a myriad of voice menus to get to someone who asks if I tried every simple solution known to man.”

Many schools also have found they can reduce costs by upgrading and repurposing older equipment whenever possible rather than buying brand new stuff, said Bill Rust of Gartner.

“The careful ones will take their older machines and reinstate them in other areas,” Rust said. “A high-purposed machine will be repurposed for word processing five years later.”

Indeed, Devkota of the Charles County district said, “We look into upgrading (our computers) first, but it gets to a point where after six or seven years, the equipment begins falling apart and that is when we’ll consider replacing with new machines.”

Even equipment that has outlived its usefulness can helps schools stretch their technology money a little further.

“We have a trade-in program that allows schools to take advantage of the market value of the products they want to trade in,” said Brian Becker, director of education at Hewlett-Packard (HPQ). “We’ll make them available to other folks if they’re useable or they’ll be disposed of in an environmentally friendly way.” H-P will also take care to make sure sensitive files have been removed from computers, he added.

Cisco also offers a buyback program where old equipment will be taken away and recycled and replaced with new equipment, said Devkota.

Districts also often make long-term plans with help from technology companies, making arrangements to provide hardware, software, as well as other services related to technology.

According to Katie O’Malley-Simpson, coordinator of communications for the Charles County district, which has worked closely with Cisco Systems for its network technology, its relationship with the company began about six or seven years ago.

“Cisco had ideas for how the school district could advance rather than just talking hardware and software,” she said.

H-P works with schools in a similar way.

“The process usually starts with us sitting down with them and seeing what they want to do and where they are in their district,” said Brian Becker, director of education at HP. “At HP we don’t just dump hardware on the schools; we work with them to make sure they’ve got a great solution. It’s about how they use technology for learning.”

In terms of how schools and their technology providers are faring in the down economy, Rust of Gartner said it’s hard to gauge things because some long-term projects that started years ago and are still going on, but the first areas to feel the pinch could be those who provide services, like development -- which are less visible, but just as important.