Hillsboro Schools Tap Into City's High-Speed Fiber Network

HILLSBORO, OR — The Hillsboro School District's digital interconnectivity will see dramatic improvements by the end of 2019 thanks to a new partnership with the city of Hillsboro, school district and city officials announced this week in a joint statement. By tapping into the city's expanding high-speed internet fiber network, HSD students, staff, and faculty will reportedly benefit from increased internet performance while the district saves millions in maintenance costs.

The city since 2014 has explored ways to establish a completely enclosed fiber network connecting all Hillsboro residents to a city-run internet service utility, like Independence and Monmouth's cooperative MINET (Monmouth-Independence Network). Partnering with the school district moves the city one step closer to that goal.

Most city facilities are already connected to an enclosed city-run fiber network, and the school district is already connected through a contracted large fiber bandwidth commercial provider; with whole neighborhoods scheduled to also join the city's fiber network over the next few years, beginning with the South Hillsboro and Shute Park/Southwest Hillsboro neighborhoods in 2019, bringing the school district into the network now just makes sense.

“It’s the ultimate community partnership,” Hillsboro Mayor Steve Callaway said in a statement. “Our local school district and our local government understand the needs of our students and our neighbors, and this will help us move forward with the long-term buildout of the city’s fiber network to serve families throughout the community.”

The city reportedly plans to stick to a "dig once" strategy by piggybacking its fiber network expansion with other construction projects already slated to occur around Hillsboro; and a portion of the $408 million HSD capital construction bond approved by voters in November 2017 will help fund network infrastructure construction.

As part of its agreement with Hillsboro officials, HSD will also be able to defer network maintenance and monitoring costs back to the city because, as HSD spokeswoman Beth Graser explained, the city would maintain the network's infrastructure anyway. Graser said subtracting maintenance costs it currently pays to its third-party provider will save the the district $200,000 annually, or $2 million over 10 years.

In addition to the tremendous savings the district will see by simply switching its internet provider to the city, "we will also save approximately $3 million on the initial installation/material costs as approximately 20 percent of the area where we would need to install fiber to reach our schools overlaps areas where the city was planning to install fiber anyway," Graser told Patch.

"In addition, there will likely be savings in the design costs for both agencies as that process is now being done at one time, rather than separately," she continued. "(The school district) and the city feel that two public entities working together to avoid redundant work and maximize taxpayer dollars is exactly the type of responsible and proactive partnership our community expects from us, and we are excited to embark upon this journey."

Along with saving money, the Hillsboro School District will see currently-varied internet speeds level out across the entire district.

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According to Graser, the district currently pays for its high schools to receive 2GB data transmission speeds, 1GB at middle schools, and 200MB at elementary schools. Under its contract with the city, the district will receive 10GB connections to every individual school — and it won't need to pay the annually-increasing cost for service to an independent internet provider.

“The partnership between the city and HSD is all about what’s best for our community,” HSD Superintendent Mike Scott said in a statement. “We have a long history of working together to best serve our students and families, and this is another opportunity for us to do the right thing and make our schools and our community stronger.”

Construction to connect HSD to the city's fiber network will begin this October and November, city officials said; the district's connection should be up and running by December 2019.

Related:

• High-Speed Internet A Public Utility In Hillsboro? It's Possible
  
• High-Speed Internet Coming To Hillsboro, Officials Say
  
• HiHillsboro Wifi Online: City Council

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