Montrose Community Schools, which serves around 1,500 students, is comprised of four buildings, and sits at the northwestern edge of Genesee County.  Last spring, it was becoming evident to superintendent Dr. Edward Graham that the wireless infrastructure at Montrose Community Schools was not able to accommodate the current and future educational technology landscape within the district. Access point locations in the buildings did not provide adequate coverage or density in all classrooms. This led to students and staff members not being able to count on the internet when completing educational activities wirelessly in several classrooms. In addition, the middle school was going 1:1 with Chromebooks in the fall. The implementation of devices would have been perceived as a complete failure if students and teachers were incessantly combating internet issues.

In order to provide wireless internet that can handle the continually increasing number of devices in the classroom, the district had to purchase and install the following:

The installation of a new Cisco wireless controller

Purchased access points and rewired the majority of the previous access point locations from hallways into classrooms

Dr. Graham wanted to be fiscally responsible with district's assets and was familiar with Universal Service Administrative Company's E-rate program. He knew that there was a possibility of E-rate reimbursing up to 85% of the equipment and installation costs; therefore, an application was submitted to USAC in April 2016.

The application was accepted several months later and Montrose Community Schools was able to purchase and install the above Cisco equipment with E-rate reimbursing the district for approximately 80% of the cost this school year. Since the new equipment was installed, the district has had great coverage as expected; creating an environment that is conducive to digital learning.

If you are interested in how your district can apply for E-rate, then check out their How to Apply Guide.

For additional TRIG Professional Learning Opportunities, 

visit EduPaths.org.