Managing 10,000 Devices — and Counting — with Confidence

Before Frontline Asset Management	After Frontline Asset Management
Spreadsheets became unmanageable. The district relied on manual tracking, which made it impossible to know who had which device, whether compliance requirements were met, or how to forecast replacements.	Centralized, auditable inventory system. Migrated thousands of records from spreadsheets into one platform, giving IT and Purchasing reliable, up-to-date visibility of every asset.
Logistical strain during large-scale device distribution. With around 10,000 students and constant enrollment changes, technicians struggled to keep up with check-outs and transfers.	Scalable device management during COVID. Delegated permissions to school staff, enabling smooth student check-ins/outs and transfers. “There’s no way for us to do that” without the system.
Weak accountability and budgeting insight. High loss/damage rates at some schools (up to 25%) were invisible, and leadership lacked the data to plan for replacements or justify budget requests.	Data-driven accountability and forecasting. Provided attrition reports by school, enabling leadership to hold principals accountable and justify annual budgets with concrete evidence.

When Rick Hassler arrived at Baldwin Park Unified School District as Chief Technology Officer, he quickly realized the scale of the challenge ahead. “When I started, there was no help desk system. There was no asset tracking. There was nothing,” he recalled. 

For a district serving more than 10,000 students, this absence of structure meant that laptops, tablets, and other valuable resources could easily slip through the cracks. And because instruction is reliant on technology, the stakes were high. “Every kid has a Chromebook. Every kid has an asset, and curriculum is delivered through that Chromebook. It goes hand in hand,” Hassler explained. 

Baldwin Park needed a system that could not only track thousands of devices but also provide the accountability, reporting, and foresight necessary to sustain the devices needed for teaching and learning. 

The Challenge of Managing Technology at Scale

For Hassler, asset tracking wasn’t just another administrative task. It was a matter of survival for the IT department. “I always tell my crew, one of the many ways you get in trouble in IT is asset tracking, so I take it very seriously,” he said. 

Like many districts, Baldwin Park initially relied on spreadsheets to manage its technology inventory. But as the district scaled up device distribution, spreadsheets quickly became unmanageable. There was no reliable way to know who had what device, whether it was being used appropriately, or if funding compliance requirements were being met. 

The absence of reliable tracking also threatened the district’s ability to forecast future needs. With thousands of Chromebooks in circulation, how could leaders plan for replacements, track attrition, or budget for growth? 

Moving Beyond Spreadsheets

The answer came in the form of Frontline Asset Management. While the purchasing department initially pushed for the system, IT quickly recognized its potential. The system offered barcode scanning, up-to-date tracking across the district, and connectivity with key systems such as SIS and MDM systems — capabilities that would transform how Baldwin Park handled devices. 

Nicholas Conger, IT Manager, recalled migrating years of spreadsheet records into the platform. “In the summer of 2016, we did a massive import from spreadsheets,” he said. 

The district had officially left behind its patchwork spreadsheets in favor of a centralized, auditable, and scalable solution. 

Getting the Most Out of the System During COVID

For several years, Baldwin Park used the system primarily for technology tracking and was in the middle of a five-year plan toward a 1:1 program. Then came 2020. 

“What really drove us to get into all the nooks and crannies of the system was COVID,” Conger explained. “We really had to dive in and maneuver how we wanted to do it.” 

Suddenly, every student needed a device, and distribution had to happen almost overnight. Baldwin Park leaned on Asset Management to track device check-outs, manage transfers, and align with student mobility from SIS updates. The platform’s ability to delegate permissions to school staff proved invaluable. 

“Kids enroll and leave every day. They transfer schools every single day,” Conger said. “The system allowed us to delegate permissions to designated people at the school to help us do that. Before, it was mostly just our technicians doing it, but because we have 10,000 kids, there’s no way for just us to do that.” 

In short, Asset Management made what could have been a logistical nightmare manageable. 

Streamlining Purchasing and Audits

While IT focused on keeping devices in circulation, Baldwin Park’s purchasing team found value in the system’s reporting capabilities. 

Juanita Brake, Director of Purchasing, highlighted the importance of audits: “Closing the year-end, closing the books, auditing reports…that’s been very helpful for us,” she said. “And it has been very user friendly for our warehouse staff to use.” 

Whenever the business office needed to account for the use of federal funds — particularly the ESSER dollars used to purchase technology — her team could generate detailed reports instantly. “The tag report is usually what we’ll use. Because so much information comes up, they can manipulate the data and everything pops up for us,” Brake explained. 

The collaboration between IT and Purchasing meant devices could be received at the warehouse, scanned into the system, and distributed efficiently. Brake described the process: 

“Most everything comes through warehouse. They receive it, confirm everything, and then they scan everything in. Purchasing staff will first record the PO in Asset Management, then enter all the items. Based on that, our warehouse staff can check everything in with scanners. They place the barcodes on them and they go out.” 

For the first time, Baldwin Park had a clean, auditable chain of custody from purchase order to student. 

From Devices to Drum Sets: Expanding Asset Tracking

Over time, Baldwin Park expanded the system far beyond Chromebooks. 

“We now are tagging our musical equipment,” Brake noted. “Before, it was still being tracked on paper or spreadsheets. And up until recently, we would only enter items that were $500 or more. But now they want everything. They want to be able to see the item and move it from student to student or from class to class.” 

The district has since added band instruments, athletic equipment, uniforms, and even storage containers to the system. As Hassler put it, “That’s not just student Chromebooks, that’s everything. We have everything in our system now.” 

By expanding usage across departments, the district gained a more complete picture of its resources, reducing duplication and enabling accountability. 

Accountability, Budgeting, and Forecasting

Perhaps the most significant impact of the system has been on accountability and planning. 

Leaders use the data for both short- and long-term planning. “We use it for yearly projections. We use it for attrition rates. We give it to senior staff saying, ‘Here are the attrition rates: lost, missing, and damaged, by school,’” Hassler explained. “One school has an attrition rate of 25%. But most of the schools are in single digits. Visibility helps.” Often, simply sharing the data with principals helps to lower loss and damage rates. 

This visibility also supports the technology budget. “I use that exact data to say, ‘We’ve got to budget this much per year. There’s a cost for 1:1, and it’s an annual cost,’” Hassler said. “It helps in terms of our budgeting and forecasting.” 

Instead of guessing, the district can now justify every purchase with concrete data. 

Confidence in Every Asset

Looking back, Baldwin Park Unified has come a long way from the days of spreadsheets. With Frontline Asset Management, the district has fostered greater accountability, streamlined its processes, and gained the data it needs to plan with confidence. 

From Chromebooks to drum sets, Baldwin Park knows where its assets are, how they’re being used, and what’s needed next. Most importantly, the district has ensured that every student has access to the tools they need to learn.