Meridian ISD gets new internet system

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  • Leroy Nabors talks to Meridian ISD School Board member at last week’s meeting.
    Leroy Nabors talks to Meridian ISD School Board member at last week’s meeting.
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Meridian ISD will be getting a new internet system that will replace the current system that has “serious problems” according to school officials.

Meridian School Board approved $130,000 for the basis of a new internet infrastructure system, the first step of an expected three-part process to get Meridian up-to-date comparable to other local school districts.

“There are going to be three tiers to this. Step one is for infrastructure and that’s what I’m talking about,” Leroy Nabors, with HSC Solutions. “I’m surprised your system has lasted this long because it could go down tomorrow.”

Nabors’ company won the bid for new internet servers and to transport internet services from the High School and Elementary to admin buildings back in December.

What he found was not good.

“I’ve gone to every room just to see what you’ve got,” Nabors said.

“The cabling is… well, you have mice and all kinds of little surprises. The cabling you have in the high school has never been touched because you can’t even buy it anymore.”

Although the board didn’t go into detail about future expenditures or details for steps 2: switches and steps 3: routers or possibilities for computer leases that are needed; because without the bases for new cabling in the schools, nothing would work anyways.

“Right now, we don’t have the infrastructure to transport the data that we’re supposed to,” said Superintendent Kim Edwards. ”Whether the device be a computer, or an I-pad, in the classroom or computer lab.”

Although the Middle School is fairly new, the High School was built in 1995 and has not been updated in 15 years.