HARLINGEN — They’ve got it wired.
Or at least they will when the STEM2 Preparatory Academy opens for the 2018 – 2019 school year.
“We are going to build a network inside of the new academy that’s being created at the old St. Paul Lutheran Academy,” said James Pearcy, director of technology for the Harlingen school district.
STEM2 stands for STEM Squared and refers to science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics which will be taught at the school.
The new academy will open to sixth- and seventh-graders for the 2018-2019 school year. The following year it will also include eighth graders.
The new innovative curriculum means a complete overhaul of the building at 1920 E. Washington Ave.
“We’re replacing everything that was in there,” Pearcy said. “We’re going to be putting in new cabling for the computers that will be capable of managing a full 10 gigabytes on the wires. It will be a cloud-managed Wi-Fi system.”
He said the district will also install new network switching for the access points and the cables.
“We’re going to provide a five-gigabyte fiber optic connection which is the same size that the high schools and the middle schools get,” Pearcy said. “So even though this is a small campus we’re still giving them the larger connections so that they can take advantage of the STEMM activities.”
Why all the networking for a new school?
“We’re providing it at the highest level so that they can have transformational activities in their classrooms,” he said.
WHAT: Awarding of contract to install network cabling at the STEM2 Preparatory Academy scheduled to open for the 2018 – 2019 school year
WHO: Project awarded to Insight Networking
COST: $113,000 in TRE funds
TRE funds are those dollars collected through a property tax increase approved by voters two years ago.
