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Grant upgrading school district's network
The Mountain Home School District's computer network received a significant boost due to a grant it recently received from the Federal Communications Commission.
A majority of the $126,700 federal funding is helping overhaul the district's wide area network, or WAN, which provides Internet service to each of the schools in Mountain Home.
It replaces the district's existing fiber optic network that was installed 17 years ago.
"The fiber has a life span, and it was getting old. We feared that it was going to decay," said Will Goodman, the district's technology director.
In addition, the system had a maximum capacity of 100 megabits that was shared among 2,000 computers in the seven school buildings in Mountain Home. Putting that into perspective, just one "smart phone" is three to four times faster, he said.
While the older network was leading edge when it was installed back in 1998, advances in computer technology had maxed out the system, causing major slowdowns in the classrooms, Goodman said. In addition, access to the network trickled down from the network server at the junior high school.
He compared it to a water pipe leading from the junior high school to the other district buildings. The high school was able to siphon off what it needed and passed what was left to Bennett Mountain High School and Hacker Middle School, which absorbed even more of this network capability.
"If you were out at the end of that chain, it was really slow," Goodman said regarding the Internet service.
The new wide-area network offers 10 gigabits of processing capability, or 1,000 times faster than the one it replaced, Goodman said. It also connects each school directly to the district's server, meaning no one has to "wait in line" to share the network access.
A lot of planning went into the network upgrade since it meant having to not only take down Internet access but also the district's phone system, Goodman said. Work began early one evening and continued over the next 11 hours and wrapped up in time for classes to begin.
The school district has already upgraded the WAN system in most of its buildings with the exception of West Elementary School. The district is working with Union Pacific Railroad before it can run the needed fiber optic line over the railroad tracks and tie it into the network, with that project expected to wrap up later this month.
Meanwhile, the computers in the classrooms at Stephensen Elementary School at Mountain Home Air Force Base run off a separate network that's separate from the school district's server.
The network upgrade here comes at a time when online technology is growing in importance in local classrooms.
"Technology has become a huge part of education," Goodman said. "A lot of curriculum is now done online; not just textbooks but entire websites."
Students are using these resources to tackle everything from conducting research and learning their lessons to taking their tests.
In addition, the district launched a program this year involving digital textbooks. At the start of the year, it provided 210 electronic devices in designated classrooms, including Chrome tablets for younger students and laptops for older students.
Goodman emphasized that computer technology is progressing to the point where accessing it will become second nature within the next five years, Goodman said. The availability of these online tools will be as common as turning on a water faucet or turning on a light switch.
"To prepare students for that (future), we have to give them the best access possible," he said.
Additional funding outlined in the FCC grant also allowed the school district to upgrade its telephone system, which now includes caller identification. That feature will address a few issues identified in recent years involving student emergencies. Many times, a student would come into the front office of their school dealing with an illness or injury and try to contact their parents.
What tended to happen is the parents would see an unknown caller on their phone and think it was a telemarketer and would ignore the call and voice mail. Having caller ID is expected to remedy that problem, Goodman said.
There are other advantages, he said. It'll make it easier for the schools and police investigators to track down prank calls, including those trying to phone in bomb threats.