Network Upgrade Project

Dear Colleagues,

IT services has been working through a process of upgrading networking and wireless equipment throughout the District. This is a multi-year project focusing on replacing older equipment in all buildings to ensure continued support and improved connectivity. At this time we are on year three of the replacement and the table at the end of this email demonstrates our progress. 

During this rollout we have received feedback from staff who are requesting increased options for connecting their phones to the network. We had started with a guest network but understand this has limitations for our staff. We are happy to announce that this year, hopefully by Christmas break, we will be adding additional options to the network to allow District faculty to connect one person devices on the network. This will eliminate the need to constantly register. The guest network will also still be available for staff, students and visitors to use as needed. 

This new option will be available in any building with Extreme network equipment and will become available to other locations on the date of the building’s network replacement. 

In addition to the new option for faculty’s personal devices we will be releasing an upgrade to the district network that will allow for improved connectivity of district devices. This option will connect district equipment using a certificate and will allow devices to gain network access more efficiently. This change will also improve internet filtering as you will no longer have to “override” the filter and will be provided access based on your role in the district (staff, student, guest). This change is also planned for Christmas Break.

We are excited to offer these new options to you and believe it will help alleviate some of the concerns with using the existing guest network. The new networking equipment has also been more stable and gives us the ability to future proof our network while offering an efficient and reliable service to faculty and students. 

Sincerely,

Michael Cantolina