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SFUSD board advances $920,000 Fiber WAN RFP to expand district bandwidth
Summary
District IT staff told the board that 83% of SFUSD schools hit daily bandwidth limits; the board reviewed a staff recommendation to award an RFP to build a fiber wide-area network to upgrade sites to 1,000 Mbps (with 10 Gbps core sites), with first-year cost estimated at $920,000 and ongoing annual operating increases of about $126,000 depending on E-rate.
SFUSD officials outlined a plan to dramatically increase internet capacity across the district, saying current connections leave most schools unable to run modern online instruction.
Superintendent Garcia introduced the technology agenda item and asked district IT staff to present the Fiber Wide Area Network proposal, which is on page 20 of the meeting packet. IT staff said current school link speeds range from about 1.5 to 10 megabits per second and that 83% of schools reach their maximum bandwidth each day, limiting streaming, video conferencing and other online academic tools.
The staff presentation described a phased upgrade to provide 1,000 megabits per second to each site and four core sites at 10,000 megabits per second. The rollout was described as a one-year project starting in July (timing tied to E-rate funding windows), with an initial phase sequence of 24, 32, 25 and 35 sites to bring all schools online by June 2010. Staff estimated first-year project costs at $920,000 to be paid from the district’s technology parcel tax; ongoing net increases to operate the higher-capacity network were estimated at about $126,000 per year after the project’s first year, although staff said that final costs depend on E-rate and other reimbursements.
IT staff also told the board the proposal includes replacing aging network hardware — much of which is 10–15 years old — and building redundancy to prevent single-line failures that previously left a critical site offline for nearly a week. The district said prioritization for early deployment would be driven by academic program need, current use, ease of deployment and location.
Board members asked about coordination with city infrastructure and learned the city’s chief technology officer consulted on the project; staff said the city did not bid because the district’s E-rate eligibility and CTF discounts meant the district could get deeper vendor pricing. Commissioners also asked for updates during implementation and staff agreed to provide interim progress reports.
The Fiber WAN award was listed as part of the consent calendar. Board materials identify the RFP and related contract on the consent pages; any formal award will be effected through the consent-vote process identified in the agenda.
The board directed staff to keep the board informed about rollout timing, coordination with city partners and the effects of E-rate funding on final costs.
