District staff propose 15-year network deal and new web filter, citing roughly $150k–$185k annual savings

Mesa County Valley School District No. 51 staff presented an information item on a proposed long-term network services contract and a separate web content-filtering service intended to improve reliability and classroom management while reducing annual operating costs.

Dan Burke, who led the presentation, described a plan to secure a 15-year contract with a network provider that would create redundant fiber loops connecting schools, which he said would reduce extended outages by allowing traffic to reroute. "Our annual bill is about $393,000 a year, and it will move to $252,288," Burke said, and later summarized the expected savings as "about $185,000 a year" if multi-year terms and E-rate refunds are applied. He told the board the vendor has long experience with school networks and that the district will structure the contract in segregated five-year segments.

Burke also described a switch in the district’s web content filter to Aristotle K12. He said the district previously used Content Keeper and more recently tried another vendor that had implementation issues; Aristotle would cost roughly $30,000–$37,000 annually and provides classroom monitoring tools and screen-time reporting that staff said teachers favored based on pandemic-era use.

Board members asked about vendor stability and protection against technological change over a 15-year term. Burke said the company had operated for about 30 years and that replacing the network later would require rebuilding infrastructure at substantial cost. The board did not take an action vote on the contracts at the meeting; staff presented the cost and operational rationale and invited questions ahead of a formal procurement process.