Josh, the school’s IT director, told the Smith Vocational & Agricultural High School Board of Trustees that the district has moved major services to the cloud, built out campus fiber and wireless infrastructure, and strengthened digital security to support classroom and vocational programs.

“We moved from legacy systems to Google Workspace and an extreme network,” Josh said, describing the shift away from on‑site servers. He told trustees the school established a sustainable 1:1 Chromebook environment, upgraded computer labs and supports more than 1:1 device counts so every class can operate a Chromebook cart.

Josh outlined physical upgrades: replacement of coax with fiber, re‑wiring building server racks and patch panels, and upgrades to Cat‑6e/Cat‑8 cabling and inter‑building fiber. He said the school’s internet links were increased from roughly 30 Mbps to 1 Gbps during the COVID period and that upgraded fiber now supports “10 gigs plus” between buildings.

On wireless coverage and capacity, Josh said the district installed roughly 120 access points to approach full campus coverage and uses heat‑mapping to place devices. He said the school now supports about 6,000 unique client devices a day and routes roughly 34 terabytes of traffic through its networks.

Josh also described security and operational tools: a FortiGate firewall for centralized routing and filtering, a VisionOn access‑control (key fob) system, an Avigilon Unity camera system hosted locally, and a cloud‑based network management instance for remote monitoring and troubleshooting. He said radio communication capacity increased to about 75 radios and that the school coordinates licensing with the FCC.

Board members asked whether fiber runs were underground (Josh: yes) and who performs trenching and conduit work; Josh said much of the trenching and conduit work was done by the school’s electrical shop students under staff supervision, providing hands‑on learning. He also described partnerships and workforce development: the IT department has hosted roughly 65 interns and works with local vendors and TechFoundry for student placements.

The presentation was informational; no formal action was taken. Trustees praised the work and noted benefits for instruction, safety and student technical training.