"Our old network infrastructure was becoming obsolete," says Mark Gabehart, the chief technology officer of Abilene Independent School District.
The network was no longer able to handle the load the district's computers were needing.
"People have wanted to buy laptop computers and put those in the classrooms with their students but we did not have a wireless network available," says Gabehart.
There was no wireless network capability, and the challenges do not stop there.
Gabehart explains, "Many of our classrooms have one and maybe no more than two computers in a classroom. Some of our teachers would like to have two or three more computers in their classrooms for their students to be able to access the content."
However, each classroom only has enough drops for one computer and one telephone, but that will soon change.
AISD has been approved for E-rate funding.
E-rate is paying a total of 83% of the cost for the network upgrade.
AISD was funded nearly $4 million for cabling, which means the school district's match price is a little less than $700,000, a huge discount considering the total cost of the project.
Gabehart says, "By doing this upgrade we are going to be able to meet the needs of today and into the future."
Something that Abilene ISD has been waiting for.
"We'll have up to the date switches, routers, access points, and cabling that will do us well between the next five and fifteen years," says Gabehart.
The network was no longer able to handle the load the district's computers were needing.
"People have wanted to buy laptop computers and put those in the classrooms with their students but we did not have a wireless network available," says Gabehart.
There was no wireless network capability, and the challenges do not stop there.
Gabehart explains, "Many of our classrooms have one and maybe no more than two computers in a classroom. Some of our teachers would like to have two or three more computers in their classrooms for their students to be able to access the content."
However, each classroom only has enough drops for one computer and one telephone, but that will soon change.
AISD has been approved for E-rate funding.
E-rate is paying a total of 83% of the cost for the network upgrade.
AISD was funded nearly $4 million for cabling, which means the school district's match price is a little less than $700,000, a huge discount considering the total cost of the project.
Gabehart says, "By doing this upgrade we are going to be able to meet the needs of today and into the future."
Something that Abilene ISD has been waiting for.
"We'll have up to the date switches, routers, access points, and cabling that will do us well between the next five and fifteen years," says Gabehart.
