Schools

Going Wireless: Francis Howell BOE Approves New Wi-Fi Project

All schools in the district will be able to have wireless capabilities with implementation of new project.

Francis Howell schools will soon be wireless.

The Francis Howell Board of Education unanimously approved the purchase of tools needed to give wireless Internet access to all schools in the district. At a cost of nearly $500,000, the district will purchase routers and cables necessary to have Wi-Fi available for students and teachers.

“We spent quite a bit of money on 21st century learning support, but it was money well spent,” Board Vice President Steve Johnson said.

Find out what's happening in St. Peterswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The networks could be installed this summer and would provide two networks for users. One a public network for guest users, and one a more secure network. Both networks would under the guidelines of the District’s acceptable use policy. Sites blocked on wired networks would remain blocked on the wireless networks.

Dell will be providing the equipment for the networks at a cost of $71,112.56 a year for five years at a total cost of $355,562.80. The plan will replace the current 152 wireless access points currently available and bring the new total to access points to 640. The new system will be state of the art and will work will older and newer wireless devices.

Find out what's happening in St. Peterswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The district will also be purchasing $139,491 worth of cables from TSI to complete the project.

TENNIS COURT VOTE DELAYED

Francis Howell North High School needs some repairs to the tennis courts, just how much is the question.

The Board was slated to vote on a proposal from Vee Jay Cement to basically rebuild six courts at the school for the cost of $256,362. The courts were first , but a vote was tabled to a later meeting.

On Thursday, the Board again motioned to push the vote back to a later meeting because Board Treasurer Mike Hoehn had questions about the project and was not at the meeting.

Even though a motion was made to not vote on the item, Board Director Mark Lafata raised his objections to the expense. He said he had an issue with the expensive plan when the administration didn’t pursue a cheaper alternative.

“You can’t continue to put new, new, new into this school district,” Lafata said. “We’re going to run out of money.”

Lafata asked why the administration didn’t look for an alternative to the costly project.

“We did explore it,” Chief Financial Officer Kevin Supple said. “We didn’t bring a recommendation to the Board.”

Supple said the administration looked into a cheaper resurfacing option, but decided against it. Resurfacing only came with a one-year warranty whereas the rebuild carried a 30-year warranty.

Lafata wanted to know the cost of the resurfacing. He said he wouldn’t vote for the rebuild. Supple agreed to bring the resurfacing bids to the May 5 meeting where the Board will vote on the tennis courts’ fate.

LAFATA SWORN IN

A week after fellow Election Day winners Mike Sommer and Hoehn were sworn in, Lafata took his oath of office Thursday night.

Lafata, who was absent from the last meeting, was sworn in to serve another three-year term on the Board of Education. Lafata thanked his supporters and fellow candidates and said he was looking forward to another three years on the Board. He cautioned that this term, his fourth, would be his last.

“There won’t be another one,” he said. “ I’m going to serve my three years and move on.”

Prior to Lafata being sworn in, the Board approved the certification of election results officially declaring Hoehn, Sommer and Lafata the winner in the


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

More from St. Peters