Board approves E‑Rate‑eligible managed broadband setup and ISP award to enable active‑active network redundancy

Dr. Marlene Collogy presented the district’s E‑Rate plan and proposed procurements for a wide area network renewal, a secondary Internet service provider to create an active‑active segmented network across Key West, Marathon and Key Largo, and a managed internal broadband services contract for around‑the‑clock monitoring. Collogy explained that the district qualifies for an 80% E‑Rate discount and summarized the expected savings: "If we didn't have E rate, it would cost $200,000 a year. But because we have E rate, it's $40,000 a year for that particular service."