Carle Place students will likely be seeing faster Internet and more iPads and Chromebooks in their classrooms come the fall, thanks to the smart schools bond act.
Approved by New York state voters in 2014, the bond act allocated the issuance of $2 billion of general obligation bonds to finance educational technology and infrastructure throughout the state. Carle Place received $424,135. Carle Place technology director Richard Greenberg underwent eight months of filling out forms, getting quotes and finding out the district’s needs, before submitting the proposal to the state. Two weeks ago, the state approved $374,275 of the district’s proposal; the district will be able to use the remaining $50,000 of their allocation next year. Carle Place was one of only four districts in Nassau County approved at the first meeting of the smart schools bond review board.
The funds will allow the district to buy 10 new network switches, which will allow for higher bandwidth and Internet, a new voiceover IP telephone system and about 150 Chromebooks and iPads for classrooms.
Greenberg said the switches are the backbone of the proposal. Normally the switches would be replaced two at a time over five years, but the funds will allow them to upgrade all at once to the new switches, which transmit data 100 times faster than the old ones.
“The switches are not only faster and newer, but they give us more ports so we can increase wireless access distribution in the classrooms,” Greenberg said. “The computers will have a higher bandwidth to get data off our network and the Internet.”
Greenberg said they are hoping to implement the switches over the summer and add devices to the classrooms over the summer. The new voiceover IP telephone system will be implemented in the fall.
“It’s a shot in the arm for the district, allowing us to accomplish some upgrades to our technology faster than we would have been able to accomplish had we not had these funds,” Greenberg said.
