A plethora of hold-ups, misjudgments and confusion has cast a cloud over the school board’s plans for internet and cellular improvements district-wide. The continued drama has now passed the year mark and an end doesn’t appear on the horizon.It all began last year when the school board decided it was time to update the internet infrastructure as well as cellular coverage. An RFP (Request For Proposal) was prepared by Director of Technology Chris Bouldin and put out for bids on November 2, 2012. Several companies bid and ultimately ETC (Ellijay Telephone Company) was selected and contracted to complete the work as proposed. The price-tag to the district: $918,000.

The initial proposal included a 10 gigabyte router at each school (and some ancillary offices, etc.) as well as cellular boosters. The project objectives were to provide enough infrastructure so that any changes in technology would be accommodated without additional funds spent for several years as well as providing cellular coverage to every area of each school for the planned inception of BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) and for security purposes.

Problems began surfacing soon after. The RFP called for 43 internal antennae district-wide and nine external antennae. After subsequent walk-throughs ETC has determined a need for 122 internally and 14 externally. Mistakes were undoubtedly made when the original RFP was written by Bouldin. He resigned his position November 1 of this year. The IT Department has continued director-less since and has made progress through working with ETC to try to determine exactly how to proceed and get the objectives met.

Board member Mike Cowart had nothing but praise for the work they’ve put in. He said,

“They’ve done well and stepped up since they haven’t had an IT director.”

That position is still in the process of being filled.

Although the original contract was enacted through June of this year and is now past-due, ETC and the board are still working towards a resolution. ETC has determined the additional work would put the budget over the projected $918,000 by $42,811.74. Although they’ve been paid $860,698 to date, the board wants to insure that the catch-up game they’ve been playing hasn’t been for naught.

However, ETC’s Assistant Vice-President of Operations Jason Smith insists that the infrastructure was 80-90 percent of the original proposal with the cellular caveats being added last-minute.

Board Chairwoman Wendy Lowe questioned Smith hard. She wanted to know why these problems weren’t recognized on the initial walk-throughs before the bidding process. He had no solid answers but continued to insist that the cellular boosters were a last-minute add-on.

He also defended their position by stating that the multi-phased construction projects and the multiple concrete walls severely impact signal.

Board member Peggy Andrews questioned if there was any certainty that adding all the boosters would bring a resolution. A discussion then ensued about how spotty cellular coverage is county-wide, not just inside the school buildings. It was suggested that Verizon Wireless signal appears to be much stronger than AT&T’s. It was also pointed out that at times AT&T adds boosters into people’s homes so perhaps the fault isn’t lack of equipment but lack of upgrades on the cellular company end.

Cowart asked Smith directly if the $42k figure was a solid figure. Smith stated he doesn’t feel comfortable giving that statement at this point. He said you can add all the boosters you want but if there’s not a strong signal for the boosters to pick up, they will be useless.

The board ultimately decided the correct plan of action was to conduct additional walk-throughs of each school to determine problem areas, to allow ETC to install the six boosters they suggested would bring the high school up to speed (at no cost to the district) and to contact AT&T to determine if the liability is theirs before making any additional strides towards closure.

The following video of the ETC presentation and board’s questions was taped at their called meeting Thursday morning.