Jefferson County Public Schools is launching a new effort to establish a district-wide fiber-optic network.
It would connect all JCPS schools and buildings to high-speed internet. District leaders said in the long run, they are going to save money because they will go from leasing the network to owning it.
"Our students cannot compete in tomorrow's world using yesterday's infrastructure," said Superintendent Brian Yearwood.
JCPS is establishing a 300-mile fiber-optic network that will connect 159 JCPS schools.
Called Link to Learn, the project is happening thanks to $32 million in federal E-Rate funds, which is a program that helps school districts refresh technology.
"It will cover the whole project. So that takes care of everything," said Eric Satterly, the JCPS Chief Information Officer. "We've projected this out. This is a 30-year project that we've built, and we will no longer have to lease lines for our schools. So those costs will go away, and this will be something we'll own."
"We have a budget that takes care of our maintenance, especially for things that are reoccurring in the district," Yearwood said. "So that will naturally fit into that budget and not necessarily create—I call it—any sort of excessive contributions to a budget deficit."
Satterly says there will be maintenance costs associated with owning the network, but those are also discounted at 90 percent because of the E-Rate program. And because the district will own the network, they can control it, too.
"This allows us to scale up bandwidth at schools as needed, so we'll no longer, we'll be able to control that directly without layering on additional costs," Satterly said. "Contracts come due or have to do upgrades there, so we'll be in complete control of that."
As they work to establish the network from school to school, officials say it will be an investment for decades.
"So today we are celebrating more than infrastructure. We are actually celebrating progress," said Yearwood.
JCPS expects the project to be completed by 2028.
Source: https://www.wlky.com/article/jefferson-county-public-schools-fiber-optic-network/71283262
