VPP via Meraki + iPad cloning

Background info: I have around 100 iPads to manage for work for several different departments/i.e.- profiles. Being in a very small IT department in a k12 environment my current workflow takes too much time and every time i need to add an app or do any kind of restoration or management it adds much stress due to time loss to this one task.

I'm currently using Meraki MDM in conjunction with VPP. At the moment, there's a way to sync the apps assigned to an ipad but no way to sync folders/page layout. The apps are installing via meraki just fine and as designed. However, since i'm required to have the apps on specific pages and in a particular order i have to manually move them around, in addition to waiting for the apps to download to each device.

My question: How can i successfully clone these iPads that have VPP apps installed via Meraki MDM (installing the apps from the back up and not shells that download after the first boot up after imaging)? I remember you used to do it or perhaps still can using iTunes, but that's using apps purchased from the iTunes store, not the VPP store.

Also, is there any way i can lock my iPad users out from changing app/page layouts and lock them out of certain folders? This also causes time loss fixing these irritations.

Thanks so much for any and all solutions.