I support a local school that had a "pure" asterisk box and 24 grandstream phones. they couldn't get support for the original asterisk system so i replaced it with PiAF and FreePBX. The admin like it because they can administer it themselves and only ring me when theres an issue with the grandstream phones (horrible BT101/102 phones). They have 1 BRI connected to a EPYGI gateway I put in with the PiAF server. The option for VoIP is now there with the gateway but we are waiting for the fibre before we dump the ISDN for VoIP.
You can do a similar thing with a VoIP line for say $10-15 a month, a S/H desktop and a free iso image, a selection of free soft phones or cheap IP phones(not grandstream BT101/102's !!)
Why not make it a school project ? Ask for sponsorship or similar, get the community involved. I would send you a server myself but your IT guy doesn't sound up to it. If he's a windows man then 3CX free edition is a no brainer.
I suspect the free edition of 3CX would be a problem when all teachers finish class at the same time and a few have calls to make. Better to have a communications company that can administer an asterisk system like FreePBX or equivalent as a turnkey solution.
In the meantime, ask your home ISP whether they have a cheap VoIP service that you can install on your laptop or an IP phone. You probably don't need to ask the IT guy to enable anything unless you want incoming calls, but might have to get the IP phone allowed onto the network.
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