School board also sets March 11 as date for public hearing on another possible sale of the Fisher Administration Building
The Cheney School District is planning on putting some of its excess fiber optic capacity — known as “dark fiber” — to a money making use through a contract with TW Telecom.
The school board voted 4-0 at its first regular monthly meeting last Wednesday night to approve a contract with the telecommunications company to lease six strands, amounting to one tube, of district-owned fiber optic cable serving Sunset Elementary School in Airway Heights. The district has four tubes, 24 strands, total, running to the school, and is currently only using four strands for data and phone.
The lease will leave the district with 14 strands of cable for future growth. The contract terms call for TW Telecom to pay the district $1,350 per month to lease the fiber, which runs on poles approximately 3.8 miles from the northeast portions of the South Hayford and McFarland roads intersection to just west of the intersection of West Hallett Road and West Westbow Boulevard.
The contract runs for 12 months and will automatically renew annually unless either party elects to cancel the agreement. After the fifth renewal, the monthly fee may be increased by 3 percent each year.
Kassidy Probert, the district’s executive finance director, told the board the district is currently paying $9,000 a year to Inland Power and Avista to lease the fiber optic space on the poles. The contract with TW Telecom will cover this cost, leaving about $7,000 for the district to find a use for, Probert added.
“May I suggest we put it into technology?” Director Rick Mount asked.
The board also agreed to set a public hearing for its March 11 meeting at 6:05 p.m. to consider a possible sale of the district’s surplused Fisher Administration Building. Probert said they have an offer from a group interested in the building equal to the two previous offers, which were for 90 percent of the building’s estimated valuation of $1.055 million.
The March 11 meeting will take place at Betz Elementary School.
In other new business the board held the first readings on updates to two policies regarding the enrollment rights and services for homeless students and the prohibition of harassment, intimidation and bullying. In both cases the updates added language to bring both policies into line with updates in the state’s Revised Code of Washington (RCW) and the Washington Administrative Code (WAC).
In something of a role reversal, Kristi Thurston, district support services director, and Ryan Fitzgerald, Homeworks principal, said updates to the homeless student policy actually brings the state more in line with practices the district has already been using in identifying homeless students and finding ways to get them and their families information about enrolling in school. It’s a practice made more difficult by the stigma surrounding homelessness.
“It’s all about removing barriers,” Fitzgerald said.
With regards to the policy on prohibiting harassment, intimidation and bullying, the added language dealt with how to deal with such behaviors when they occurred against students with Individual Education Plans or Section 504 Plans in order to ensure these students learning opportunities are not inhibited.
John McCallum can be reached at jmac@cheneyfreepress.com.
Reader Comments(0)