Apple Configurator insisting new iPads should update to iOS8

I am in a tricky situation and am somewhat frustrated.

My school have bought new iPad minis. I am currently running OSX 10.8.5. When I go to prepare them, it is insisting on them trying to update to iOS 8. The do not update option is greyed out unless I select unsupervised, which I don't want.

The problem is iOS 8 needs Apple Configurator 1.6. This in turn needs OSX 10.9 Mavericks. I have tried to update it but it warns me that 10.9 supports OSX Server 3 and unless I purchase an upgrade for Server 3 my server will be disabled.

I find this ridiculous for a number of reasons.

1. Why is it trying to update to iOS 8 when my version of Apple Configurator can't handle it?

2. Why do I not have the option to not update to iOS8?

3. Why to allow me to use the iPad minis that had I plugged in before iOS8 came out would work perfectly fine, do I have to buy an upgrade to retain the functionality on the server that I have now?

4. I should not have to make the choice between getting my iPads setup or losing my server functionality.

If anyone has any solutions to this I would be very grateful. At the moment I have 16 iPad minis sitting there not used because Apple Configurator is refusing to set them up.