Technology Breakdown

When Dr. Farhad Jadali, Chief Information Officer for the, stood up to present a number of proposals to the school board Wednesday, he discussed not one or two proposals but a total of seven.

All seven had to do with updates or funding for technological services to be used in the district. The school board approved all seven proposals after asking a few questions of Dr. Jadali.

The seven technical services that will be done to the district include the following:

• An upgrade to the central computer system that would allow the growth in management of internal data processing. The upgrade would assist the district’s computer system to sustain processing for another five years. LRS was selected for the upgrade.
• The use of E-Rate funding for the district’s local and long-distance telephone service, and AT&T was the sole bidder for it.
• The use of E-Rate funding for district cell phone services, which Sprint has been selected to provide.
• An update to the internal connection network wiring in the district’s building, which would update the wired network system of the district. TSI has been selected to provide the service.
• The use of E-Rate funding for pager services within the district. American Messaging was the sole bidder.
• The use of E-Rate funding for the district’s web hosting services. SchoolWires was selected for the job.
• The Technology Services department will install a centrally managed WiFi solution throughout district buildings that will allow wireless access to devices within the building. TSI has been selected for the project.

 A number of the upgrades and request will come as a result of E-Rate funding, which provides a discount to schools and libraries for eligible telecommunications services, according to the U.S. Department of Education website.

According to Dr. Jadali, the district is eligible for a 77 percent discount on the above mentioned technology projects with approval from the Schools and Libraries Division of the Universal Service Administration Company.