Brea Olinda trustees ask staff to scope fiber and Wi‑Fi upgrades, seek cost estimates

At a study session the Brea Olinda Unified School District board directed staff to develop a detailed scope and cost estimates for technology infrastructure upgrades that would include fiber and expanded Wi‑Fi coverage across the high school campus.

Board members raised concerns about a wide preliminary cost range — roughly $500,000 to $900,000 — and asked staff to identify where synergies with other projects could reduce costs. Staff noted the estimate’s range reflected differing possible scopes and the opportunity to lay conduit while other work (path‑of‑travel projects and bleacher work) exposes underground access points.

Staff also emphasized classroom reliability, saying past testing outages were caused by an outside carrier rather than district equipment. “That was AT and T. That was not us,” Speaker 4 said, and trustees said the district must prevent similar test‑day failures.

Speaker 6 said the district would apply for E‑Rate support where eligible and that the technology upgrades would be phased. The board instructed staff to return with hard costs and narrower scope options; Speaker 1 summarized the direction by asking staff to “please pursue that cost, you know, hard cost,” and trustees signaled consensus to move forward with scoping work.

As a next step, staff will prepare scopes of work for technology infrastructure and related systems: Josh Barton and Carrie Johnson will draft scopes for intercoms/bells (already budgeted) and broader tech infrastructure for board review.

The board did not approve a construction contract during the session; members asked staff to return with more precise cost estimates so the board can decide whether to add the work to currently approved projects or pursue separate procurement.