The Mahomet-Seymour School District hopes this summer to finish the fiber optic loop it began to build in 2013.
Director of Technology Jared Lynn presented the $164,000 project to the Mahomet-Seymour School Board on Feb. 11.
Lynn said with a federal e-rate program and a one-time state matching grant, the district could have the project completed without spending district funds.
In 2013, the Mahomet-Seymour School District ran 12 fiber optic strands from I-74 to Mahomet-Seymour High School, and then to Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School to boost network stability and to accommodate for growing technology use within the district.
The Village of Mahomet then continued to run fiber optic cables from the junior high to Main Street, giving access to the Village of Mahomet and Sangamon Elementary.
In order to provide Middletown Prairie Elementary with access to the same reliability, the Village then ran fiber optic lines from I-74 near the Prairieview Exit to Churchill Road.
The move by the Village also provided access to the Mahomet Public Library and a few local businesses that have also chosen to tap into the network.
The fiber optic lines are owned by the school district and the Village, but managed by the Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network (CIRBN), which provides internet access to all entities tied into the network.
CIRBN utilizes space within Mahomet-Seymour Junior High and Middletown Prairie to store its equipment. CIRBN then gives the district a discount on internet service for allowing it to use the space.
With one fiber optic strand running from Middletown Prairie to the hand hole located at Churchill Road, the district’s bill is $1,500 per month. With the e-rate program, the district would pay $600 out of pocket each month for that service.
Lynn said building the $164,000 line that would connect Churchill to Main Street will not only provide district-owned and dedicated fiber optic lines to the schools, but would also save the district money in the long run.
The federal e-rate program is running a special on internet infrastructure projects in 2019. Normally the program reimburses school district for 60 percent of the total cost, but is offering now 70 percent. Illinois is also offering a matching grant, which would cover the additional 30 percent of the cost, leaving the district with zero financial investment.
The district would be responsible for paying CIRBN $750 per month for maintenance and location fees, but with e-rate, the district would only pay $300 out of pocket to connect Middletown to the high school.
Currently, the district pays $482 per month after e-rate.
“It’s one of those things where it’s going to help the district out because our monthly fees will go down,” Lynn said.
Servicing the individual schools with fiber optic access, the district is able to connect all entities at a minimum of 10 gigabytes per second. The high school connects at 30 gb and the junior high connects at 20 gb.
“That’s a little overkill, but as we add more devices, we need to be prepared for it,” he said. “Right now, every kid isn’t watching 4K video, but at some point, they probably will be on their devices. We need to be prepared for that.”
At 9 a.m. on a recentThursday morning, the district had 1,032 devices connected to the network with 700 devices being at Middletown Prairie.
The Village and a few local businesses also have contracts with the Central Illinois Regional Broadband Network.
While the Village and the district wanted to complete the fiber optic loop in 2015 by connecting Churchill Road to Main Street, the funds were not available.
The Village went on to lease strands from Metro Communications to create a redundancy, making high-speed internet access available at all times, for the entities that were part of the network.
With the e-rate grant, Lynn said the district and Village will have full ownership over the fiber optic lines.
“The district owns it and there is no other traffic that flows along with it,” he said.
Because the state matching grant is only available in 2019, Lynn said it is important that the district take advantage of the opportunity.
Currently, the district stores servers at Mahomet-Seymour Junior High School.
Although the district will have to go to taxpayers for a referendum to build a new junior high, the district is planning to eliminate the building in the future.
With that, the server equipment will need to go from the junior high to the high school.
“All of our internet activity in the district flows from the junior high,” Lynn said.
If the junior high gets moved out to the land near Middletown Prairie Elementary, the district will need to have access to run more fiber optic lines to the building.
Lynn said the fiber optic lines add security to sensitive student, teacher and security camera information.
“It’s a security thing. As much as we can keep local, it makes sense from a networking standpoint,” he said.
“If we were to have all the traffic in this building go straight out to the internet, we’d have to add another filter, more wireless equipment.”
The district put the project out to bid before presenting it to the board on the 11th.
Volo Communications and CIRBN submitted bids, but CIRBN’s bid came in lower because it would only have to connect Churchill to Main Street. Volo would have to run lines from Middletown to the high school, according to Lynn.
The district, which has yet to talk to the Village about this project, will have to troubleshoot how to go through properties along IL-150 and how to cross a river to access both points.
But Lynn said the government-owned project is something that helps out the whole community.
“We are helping (the Village) out because they currently lease from Metro,” he said. “CIRBN will be able to provide their own dedicated link from the high school to Middletown, eliminating Metro. They can cancel the (other) contract.”
“And it will help CIRBN as an organization. They’ve been looking to do this because it eliminates the number of contracts that they have. The more that they can own, they are hedging their bets and protecting themselves.
“They want to provide high reliability to the Village and the customers within the Village, but if one of those links no longer exists because a contract dispute, then that’s a problem for them.
He also said that the fiber optic loop with CIRBN will guarantee access to entities that get service from it should a line get cut somewhere.
“Nobody thinks it would happen, but it could,” Lynn said.
“They will never know if something happens.”
While the e-rate grant and state grant would pay for 100 percent of the district’s 12 strands, CIRBN will piggyback on the deal and pay for an additional 78 strands to lease out to other organizations, as they already do.
Lynn sounded hopeful that the district would receive the grant money when he presented to board members.
If they do not receive both grants, Lynn said the district will not do the project at this time.
