It's an exciting moment for Lawrence Public Schools! We hosted a ribbon-cutting to officially launch our private fiber Wide Area Network (WAN). This project will enable us to better serve the technology needs of our school community and produce an estimated $3 million in savings in our General Fund during the life of the contract. The General Fund supports staff salaries and student educational resources.

The private fiber network project expands the district's broadband capacity and improves the reliability and security of our network. We previously had 19 1-gigabyte circuits, 3 2-Gig circuits, and 3 10-Gig circuits. The WANRack project brings us 40-Gig service within the first four years with plans to grow to 100-Gig capacity. "Our plan is to start developing a 5G LTE network," said Vignery of a second phase of the project to provide internet connectivity to school families, helping to bridge the digital divide.

Thank you to everyone who played a part in this historic moment for the future of Lawrence Public Schools! Keeping our scholars at the forefront, LHS Marching Band field conductors Lauren Seybold, Elise Rathmel, and Morgan Moeckly joined us to cut the ribbon.