<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Courtesy of today's (February 26, 2014) Spokesman-Review.</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------</div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></div><div><h1 style="font-size: 28px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; clear: both; line-height: 1.2; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); font-family: Arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Goedde: Dump WiFi contract, send the money to school districts</h1><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">BOISE – Idaho Senate Education Chairman John Goedde, R-Coeur d’Alene, wants the state to cut off a five- to 15-year sole-source contract with Education Networks of America to set up WiFi networks in every Idaho high school, and instead send the $2.25 million a year in funding out to school districts to contract for their own WiFi networks.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“That was a multi-year contract signed with one year’s funding,” Goedde said. “I’m really comfortable with a non-appropriation on that, and then I would like to see the money sent down to school districts with a standard, saying the money is theirs to invest in wireless. Anything left over after they meet that standard, they could use for other technology.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Like all state contracts, the wireless networks contract that state schools Superintendent Tom Luna signed with ENA in August includes a clause saying if the Legislature doesn’t appropriate funds, the contract is void.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goedde said he has talked with budget-writing Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee members and other lawmakers about the change of course, and plans to pursue it both through JFAC action and through legislation in his Senate Education Committee. “The non-appropriation I think would be through the budget committee,” Goedde said. “The reallocation, from my perspective, would be a policy decision,” so the Senate and House education committees could consider legislation on that.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goedde said the contract that Luna signed last summer – based on a one-year, $2.25 million appropriation for high school wireless networks that JFAC had included in the public school budget for this year – is installing equipment throughout the state that doesn’t meet a new WiFi standard that just went into effect in January. “And that equipment’s going to be in place for five years, under the contract,” he said.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">“I believe that there are districts in this state that have the technological expertise and could deploy the wireless equipment on their own, not need the help-desk service, and probably could buy the equipment for less than they’re leasing it for,” through the ENA contract.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Other smaller districts may need a full-service package like ENA’s, he said, but ENA is not their only option. “There may be other businesses locally that could provide a comparable package and have it competitively bid,” Goedde said. “It’s very possible that they could save money … and employ more Idaho people.”</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Goedde said a key part of his plan is to include a WiFi standard that all the districts would have to meet when they spend the state funds. That would ensure quality service, he said, without a need for a statewide, sole-source contract.</span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 21px; overflow: visible !important;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">ENA is based in Nashville, Tenn., and also has a Boise office; ENA officials at both locations didn’t respond to calls today from a reporter seeking comment.</span></p></div><div style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">-----------------------------------<br><br><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)</span></div><div><a href="http://www.moscowcares.com/" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font color="#000000">http://www.MoscowCares.com</font></a></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div><div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Tom Hansen</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Moscow, Idaho</span></div></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"There's room at the top they are telling you still.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">But first you must learn how to smile as you kill,</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">If you want to be like the folks on the hill."</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">- John Lennon</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> </span></div></div></div></body></html>