Board approves lease for district fiber ring and authorizes network switch upgrades, contingent on state match

The Lansing USD 469 Board of Education voted to move forward with a district fiber lease and a separate network switch procurement aimed at improving internet speeds and redundancy across district buildings. The board approved a motion to award Wanrack a five‑year lease to build a looped fiber ring linking the board office, bus barn, high school and elementary school, contingent on receiving a state rate match and related funding. The motion passed unanimously.

Brian (district technology staff) told the board the full project price was quoted at $659,000. After the federal/state rate match the district’s share would be about $197,000 up front; Wanrack’s quoted leased‑fiber cost after the district’s rate match was presented as $668 per month, and the Spectrum access line into the district hub was shown as roughly $1,618 per month. Brian said the contract is contingent on both the rate discount and the state match and would be voided if those funds are not secured.

Board members framed the decision as a tradeoff between an upfront capital amount and long‑term performance. The staff analysis showed the dedicated ring would give the district redundant routes (a loop) to avoid downtime when fiber is cut and allow the district to light more capacity later without repeated construction. Brian emphasized the operational benefits: faster bandwidth to the high school, better utilization of recently purchased 10‑gig switches, and the ability to add services (for example, camera traffic or future bandwidth increases) without incremental construction costs.

The board also approved a related Category 2 procurement for switches, ports and related infrastructure from Pine Cove (enterprise‑level switches) at a total contract price of $289,383.72; staff said roughly half of that work may be eligible for rate funding across the five‑year cycle and that the district would prioritize buildings by need. The Pine Cove award carried a unanimous recorded vote.

Superintendent Marty said the Wanrack award would be brought back as a final contract for board approval only after the required rate‑discount paperwork and state match were confirmed. Board members asked staff to provide a timetable for the state‑match decision and to include the Wanrack contract as a future action item conditioned on that confirmation.

What happens next: staff will file for the rate match and state funding as the board authorized, and if the match is secured the board will receive a formal contract for final approval. If the state match is not awarded, the authorization is void and the district will explore other options.

Votes and motions: the Wanrack award motion was approved by roll call (recorded in the minutes as unanimous for the motion as presented, contingent on funding). The Pine Cove bid was approved by roll call (unanimous).