Accelerating web access

Island City Elementary students Mara Sampson, right, and Tristan White check a computer at their school this morning. Computers at Island City and Greenwood elementary schools will be operating much faster in about two months because of fiber optic lines that will be installed for the schools. - DICK MASON/The Observer

The information superhighway’s fast lane.

Greenwood and Island City will be receiving fiber optic Internet connections thanks to a $39,522 Last Mile Connectivity grant the La Grande School District has received from the Oregon Department of Education.

The fiber optic lines will make it easier for students and teachers at the schools to navigate the Internet quickly and will expand what can be done at the schools.

“This is a fabulous upgrade for the district,’’ said Tim Welch, information technology director for the La Grande School District.

The fiber optic lines will replace the T1 phone lines Greenwood and Island City now have. The fiber optic lines have 1,000 times more bandwidth than the T1 phone lines. The fiber optic lines will run to the district’s server at La Grande High School, just as their T1 lines do now.

Island City Elementary Principal John Tolan said the fiber optic line will be extremely welcome at his school. The line will allow the school to easily use web-based math and reading instruction programs that now are very difficult and sometimes impossible to operate at Island City.

Tolan also said the fiber optic line will make it much easier for teachers to give students state assessment tests online.

Welch understands the frustration staff at Island City and Greenwood have experienced.

“They (Island City and Greenwood) have been very limited in what they can do in terms of instruction from the Internet,’’ Welch said.

Receiving the Last Mile Connectivity grant is particularly gratifying for La Grande school officials since a year ago the district was one of the final applicants to be cut from the state’s list of recipients of grants for fiber optics.

Welch wrote the grant application with help from Tolan; La Grande School District Business Manger Chris Panike; Greenwood Principal Mike Gregory; Greenwood/Island City librarian Ellen Lester; and Cheri Rhinhart, technology director of the Umatilla-Morrow Education Service District.

The La Grande School District is one of 20 in Oregon to be awarded a Last Mile Connectivity grant. Seven of the 20 districts are in Eastern Oregon. The grants are meant to upgrade Internet connectivity in rural areas that don’t meet minimum Internet requirements.

The Legislature allocated $500,000 in funding during, the 2009-11 biennium to provide these on-time grants to school districts.

All of the other schools in the La Grande district have had fiber optic lines since 1998. The district could not get lines for Greenwood and Island City because of the cost. The expense, however, has come down dramatically in the past decade. Welch said it would have cost $250,000 to purchase fiber optic lines for Greenwood and Island City about 10 years ago.

Work on installing the fiber optic lines has already started. Welch said the lines will be in place and operating by early April and possibly sooner.