MP School District prepares for new technology rollout

BY KARYN SPORY

Mt. Pleasant News

The Mt. Pleasant Community School District?s network will be receiving an upgrade.

Brady McFarland, information technology director, who began on July 1, said one of the first questions he was asked was whether the current network would support the Mac 1:1 initiative that will be rolling out at the high school next week. ?The answer is no,? he said. ?We?re at the point where (the network) is very dated.?

McFarland said during registration last Thursday he had to manually kick some devices off the network so students could be registered for classes.

McFarland said if the district does nothing, students will have a ?really long wait time? to get online, slow uploads and in some cases, will not be able to get online at all.

McFarland said the first phase of the upgrade would be to update the High School and Lincoln Elementary. ?This initial wave does not fix the entire network, it will fix the High School and Lincoln (Elementary),? he said. ?At some point we will have to fix the Middle School and (other) elementary (schools).?

The way the network is set up, information from the elementary schools is routed through fiber to the central receiving office. It is then sent by fiber to Lincoln Elementary and then to the High School. ?This initial wave replaces the really critical equipment here at the high school because the high school picks up all of the traffic of every elementary school and middle school,? explained McFarland. ?It also replaces the core switch at Lincoln because right now if it was to fail, we would lose everything behind Lincoln.?

The network infrastructure upgrade will be done with RSM IT-Vision and Cisco Total Care. Bryan Nelson, of RSM US LLP, and his associate Richard Owens, was present to answer any questions the board may have of the system upgrade.

When asked what the district would be receiving for the nearly $200,000 price tag, Nelson said the storage system, new plate servers and new switching gears would be like going from a one-lane road to a 40-lane road.

McFarland said the district would continue to upgrade the network a little at a time, as to try to keep the costs down.

The board approved the $199,195 project, which would come from the penny sales tax fund.

The board also approved a bid to reroof the locker room facility and ticket booth at the Mapleleaf Athletic Complex.

The board received three bids for the project, two of which were for traditional shingles and the third for a metal roof.

Zeglen Construction, of Olds, bid $36,000 for the project while Wesley Barton Construction Inc., of Mt. Pleasant, bid $30,067, for a traditional shingled roof.

Weiler Builders, LLC, of Bloomfield, had the lone metal roof bid. The bid included screwing 40-year paint warranty metal over the shingles of the building. The labor and materials totaled $16,500, and it would be an additional $1,400 if the school board opted for textured metal that would have a matte finish and less glare. The bid did not include the ticket office.

Board President David McCoid said the Weiler?s project would have exposed fasteners, which he had been told could lead to leaks.

Building and Grounds Director Mart Porth said he didn?t believe the exposed fasteners would be an issue. He also stated he was more inclined to go with the metal roof as it would have a longer life span.

McCoid said whatever option the district decided to go with, he would want the ticket booth reroofed as well.

In a 3-2 vote, the board approved the bid from Weiler of $17,900 for the textured metal roof as well as whatever the costs would be to reroof the ticket booth. McCoid and Karl Braun cast the no votes. Board members Jennifer Crull and Chuck Andrew were absent from the meeting.

Check out tomorrow?s edition of the Mt. Pleasant News for more stories from Monday night?s board meeting.

The next school board meeting will be held on Monday, Aug. 22, at 6 p.m., at the High School media center.