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Board hears PSBA, Diamond pitch to market Tunkhannock Area SD properties for improved cell service
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Summary
Pennsylvania School Boards Association and Diamond Communications presented ConnectED, a no‑cost program to analyze district properties, market sites to wireless carriers and pursue towers or rooftop colocations that could improve coverage and generate revenue; the board asked questions and did not take action.
Michelle Zettlemoyer, director of services for the Pennsylvania School Boards Association, told the Tunkhannock Area School District board that PSBA’s ConnectED program is designed to help districts ‘‘analyze the connectivity for their district properties, and then work with them to implement solutions to improve that connectivity.’’
Representatives from Diamond Communications described technical analyses showing persistent coverage gaps on several district properties and explained how the company markets sites to carriers, handles zoning and lease negotiations, and manages carrier relationships. A Diamond presenter said the firm uses crowd‑sourced coverage data and an RF metric called RSRP to map weak reception (values below –105 dBm were described as unreliable) and showed propagation models indicating a 190–250 foot structure at selected sites would extend reliable service into nearby townships.
Diamond presented illustrative economics showing capital costs for a new monopole often in the neighborhood of $500,000 and an example revenue‑share model in which the district would receive roughly 30% from the first and second carriers and 40% from the third carrier; presenters characterized those figures as examples from their slide deck rather than guaranteed amounts. Michelle Zettlemoyer emphasized that ConnectED is ‘‘a no cost option for districts’’ and that a site‑marketing agreement (SMA) would give PSBA/Diamond the right to market sites but would not obligate the district to accept a carrier proposal.
During board questions, members asked about district exposure to cost and risk, timelines for carrier capital planning and how towers would be powered. Diamond said the district would not pay tower capital costs for a new build, that carriers plan CapEx on their own schedules (so deployment could take months to years), and that power is typically brought to sites via an easement with separate carrier meters rather than district service.
No formal vote was taken. Board members said they would discuss the proposal further; Diamond and PSBA listed the SMA as the next step if the board wants to have properties marketed to carriers.
