Area schools to be connected with fiber optics

Cutline: Workers have begun the installation of fiber in between schools in Rayne and Crowley, and hope to have schools in rural areas connected sometime in the summer.

By Katherine Miller

CROWLEY – The Acadia Parish School Board is expanding their Internet capabilities for faster and more reliable connections to all 27 of their schools with the installation of fiber by DETEL Wireless, from Hessmer, La. DETEL has been laying fiber between the schools in Rayne and Crowley over the past 2- 3 weeks with plans to expand to the rural schools later this spring and summer.

The Acadia Parish School Board approved this expansion at their January 2008 board meeting. The majority of the funding for internet connectivity is provided by federal funds called ERate.

Ms. Jill Doga, Media/Technology/Textbook Supervisor for the Acadia Parish School District, said that the current Internet connection for parish schools is 4 Megabytes, and the new system will operate on 1 Gigabyte with the new system being installed.

“End-Of-Course Testing is now going on in the subjects of Algebra 1 and English II at all area high schools, and it is extremely important that we maintain more reliable Internet connectivity during these tests. When the installation of the new equipment is complete, we will have that capability.”

The projected timeline will have all schools using fiber connectivity, which is 200 times faster than the current speed, by December 2008.