Lane ESD's EESC Connectivity Grant Award Projects, 2008-2009

What Are Lane ESD and the EESC?

• Lane Education Service District (ESD) is a public K12 agency that provides aggregated school improvement, special education, administrative, and technology services to the sixteen districts in Lane County.

• The Oregon Education Enterprise Steering Committee (EESC) is comprised of representatives from ODE, ESDs,Oregon University System (OUS), and K-12 school districts.  EESC came into existence with the passage of HB 3184, which refined the role of ESDs by identifying the four areas in which ESDs must provide regionalized core services:  school improvement, special education, administrative services, and technology.  
   

What's the background on this EESC Connectivity Grant?

• In October, 2008, the EESC made available ten grants, each not to exceed $25,000, specifically to improve internet connectivity to Oregon school districts.  This internet connectivity supports classroom instruction, student and teacher research, online student assessments, and the business of schools.  In contrast to the growth and promise of meaningful technology uses and the dramatic increase in technology needs, many districts in Oregon have had few options for high-speed connectivity.   These grants were intended to provide the seed-funds necessary to establish adequate technology capacity in awarded districts.

• In October, 2008, Lane ESD submitted applications on behalf of four districts for EESC's Last Mile Connectivity Grant.   Lane ESD's objective was to provide improved capacity, and scalable and affordable fiber connectivity to students and teachers in the Lowell, Junction City, Creswell, and Pleasant Hill school districts.
• In November, 2008, Lane ESD received awards for all four applications! 
• In three instances Lane ESD proposed approaches that would literally establish the "service provision."  In other words, the proposals specified lighting existing fiber that has lain unused in the ground for years.  Lane ESD's proposals spanned considerable distances, utilized dark fiber, and required significant and substantial coordination and resources among multiple public agencies.  

Who Collaborated with Lane ESD in this process?

• A critical part of the research for the applications resulted in broad collaboration with multiple public agencies and local cities.  LESD staff worked with K12 superintendents, mayors, city administrators, city works managers, a fire chief, an acting police chief, and Regional Fiber Consortium representatives at Lane Council of Governments (LCOG).   In both Junction City and Lowell, Lane ESD established ongoing multilateral relationships and set in motion near-term trilateral goals that also include full gigabit connectivity to multiple city services.   In both cases these goals promise additional collaboration between the cities, school districts, Lane County, and Lane ESD.  These goals also promise significant improvement in access while minimizing additional ongoing costs for all partners. 

Where can I get background on the proposals, and updates on the progress of the projects?

• Click "side bar" in the upper right of this page to see a selection of project-specific pages and contact information.