Speaking at a Senate Education Committee meeting full of administrators and school board members from across the state, Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill, R-Rexburg, said school districts should contact broadband providers in their areas and negotiate contracts for the next few months.
"We'd encourage you to do do what's necessary to get through this (school) year," said Sen. Dean Cameron, R-Rupert.
Cameron said he didn't want to give up too many details since, on Tuesday morning, the Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee, which he co-chairs, will take up how to keep the system going and funded for the rest of the school year.
He did make a few things clear, though -- the state won't make any payments on the contract that has been declared illegal, won't put in place an emergency contract with current providers CenturyLink and Education Networks of America, and won't be sending all the money it appropriates to school districts to buy service, either. Cameron said JFAC would make sure to appropriate enough to make sure schools can get reimbursed.
"We want to protect schools and we want to protect kids," he said.
Fourth District Judge Patrick Owen voided the state's $60 million contract in November, saying the state illegally cut Syringa Networks out of the deal. He reaffirmed his ruling last week.
The network provides broadband service to Idaho high schools, and some students use it to take classes they need to graduate. The two providers have said they will cut off service on Sunday if they aren't paid the more than $4 million in payments the state has been holding off on making since Owen's first ruling.
And, the current state funding for the network, which the Legislature has been allocating piecemeal since the federal government stopped making "e-rate" payments to the state in 2013 due to concerns about the contract's legality, runs out at the end of February.
State officials are encouraging school districts to apply for e-rate money for the 2015-2016 school year. Schools must submit an initial form by Feb. 26 and a final application by March 26.
Will Goodman, chief technology officer with the state Department of Education, said school districts need to have an emergency plan in place in case broadband is shut off on Sunday and need to be able to get service for the rest of the school year. He also said districts shouldn't commit to any contracts that go beyond the 2015-2016 school year, so they're not shut out in case the state switches to a new statewide network.
And what about the future of the network? Hill said he's not sure whether a future statewide network will look like the IEN, whether it will also incorporate other broadband uses, such as for commerce, or whether it will still be run by the Department of Administration.
The Department of Administration has already put out a request for information for a long-term contract, the first step in rebidding. Cameron said he doesn't know whether this will remain in place.
Cameron said the state's lawyers have said Idaho needs to cut all ties with the previous contract if the state is ever to again qualify for e-rate money.
"We need to have a clean break with the existing system," he said.
Margie Chipman, vice president of the Idaho School Board Association and a Weiser school trustee, read off a long list of things her district uses broadband for, from different types of classes to all kinds of record-keeping needs. She is worried about switching from the current network, which is monitored by the contractors, fast and reliable, to getting it via the private sector, she said.
"This would result in schools using Internet that is part of an unmanaged public network," she said.
©2015 The Times-News (Twin Falls, Idaho)
