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District recommends $224,000 recabling at middle and high schools; E‑Rate funding expected to offset most cost
Summary
District technology staff recommended replacing legacy CAT‑3/CAT‑5 structured cabling at Williamson Middle and High schools to CAT‑6/CAT‑6a to support modern data rates and Power over Ethernet; board moved the procurement to the March meeting pending E‑Rate funding.
James, a district technology staff member, recommended that the board replace legacy structured cabling at Williamson Middle School and Williamson High School to support modern hardware and Power‑over‑Ethernet devices.
At the Feb. 3 meeting he said exploratory work showed cabling in the middle and high schools dates from the 1990s (CAT‑3/CAT‑5) and does not support modern data rates or POE. He recommended upgrading to CAT‑6 and CAT‑6a cabling. Bidding for the work produced a low offer from AMCOM; the presenter said AMCOM’s best offer read at bid opening was $224,000 and that post‑bid negotiations removed extraneous items from the line‑by‑line pricing.
James said the district expects to apply for federal E‑Rate reimbursements and estimated E‑Rate would reimburse “a little over $130,000” of the project cost (presenter referenced a figure of about $137,000). He said timing the recabling across two summers will maximize E‑Rate eligibility and minimize net district cost and that the superintendent will keep the right to terminate the contract if E‑Rate funds are not awarded.
The presenter explained the technical rationale: CAT‑6 cabling supports higher short‑range data rates (up to 10 Gbps for short distances) compared with the approximately 100 Mbps capability of CAT‑5, and that replacement of older OM‑1 fiber between network cabinets will allow 10‑Gb network backbones. He listed other planned technology replacements timed to bond projects and said Discovery (elementary) already has mostly CAT‑6 cabling.
Board members asked about lifelong expectancy (presenter: cabling becomes obsolete before it fails; expect CAT‑6 to last decades), whether phones will use POE (presenter: yes, planned PoE phones and cameras), and whether the facilities team can do small runs (presenter: yes for one‑offs, but larger project requires a contracted crew).
Action status: James recommended awarding the work to AMCOM and requested board approval. The board did not vote that night and moved the item to the March 3 meeting for a formal vote; administrators were asked to confirm E‑Rate application status and contract termination language before the vote.
Ending: The board directed staff to bring a final agreement and E‑Rate award status to the March meeting for a vote.
