Springfield Public Schools has selected Comcast Business Ethernet services to support a 1:1 technology learning environment for more than 2,400 students across the district’s five schools. Comcast Business will also provide a connection between Springfield Public Schools and its primary data center for the secure transfer of all critical administrative and educational data.
Located in Union County, N.J., Springfield Public Schools is a five-school district that includes one early childhood learning center, two elementary schools, a middle school and one high school. A distinguished program, Project RED Signature District, and Center for Digital Education Digital Content and Curriculum Award winner, the district offers a 1:1 learning environment where it provides laptops for students in grades 6-12 as well as for all faculty and administrators. The Pre K-5 classrooms have a minimum of four laptops and tablets per classroom. All of the school-issued technology is provided to the students without any additional cost to them or their family, and all assignments and lesson plans are available online and accessible whether at school or at home.
“Between our 1:1 program and more than 400 tablets being used within our early childhood center and two elementary schools, we knew we needed a reliable communications partner that could provide us with the infrastructure needed to support our ‘anytime, anywhere’ learning philosophy,” said Michael A. Davino, Superintendent at Springfield Public Schools.
Comcast Business upgraded Springfield Public Schools’ network from 100 Megabits-per-second (Mbps) to a 1 Gigabit-per-second (Gbps) Ethernet Dedicated Internet connection, which will support numerous devices simultaneously accessing the Internet without overtaxing the system. In addition to allowing students access to Internet resources, this network also allows students, teacher and parents to use a virtual learning platform and obtain real-time access to grades, attendance, lunch balances, and general announcements. School board members can also access meeting minutes on their tablets and other mobile devices, eliminating the need for printed copies.
The Ethernet Dedicated Internet connection from Comcast also is supporting the district’s offsite backup system, which holds administrative information, including personnel records, budgetary information and its Student Information System (SIS). This connection is responsible for archiving and backing up all school email to its offsite data center. Plans to upgrade its network to 10 Gbps are currently underway as student enrollment continues to climb and the possibility of replacing textbooks with additional tablets is explored.
