We visited every candidate school before committing to the computing track. What we found changed the budget.
Every one of the six schools had a computer laboratory on paper. Between them they had one machine that booted.
This is the detail that sinks well meaning education programs. A curriculum arrives, the hardware does not, and within a term the class quietly becomes a theory lesson taught from a whiteboard.
We rebuilt the budget so that hardware, power, and connectivity come first and instruction comes second. A cohort of 25 needs 25 working machines, a functioning inverter, and a data plan that does not expire mid term. That is roughly 60 percent of the per school cost, and it is not the part to economize on.
The instructors we contracted are working engineers paid market rates for their afternoons. Volunteer teaching is generous and it is also the first thing to disappear when someone gets busy at their day job.