Gretna School District In Nebraska Builds Gretna School District In Nebraska Builds Advances That Boost Efficiency, Lower Costs

Nestled just 10 miles outside of Omaha, Neb., Gretna is a quiet community of established families. It is known for its small town atmosphere and its exceptional school district, which has gained national recognition for its educational opportunities. It is also an area that has experienced enormous growth in the past five years, doubling class sizes and prompting expansion of classroom and administration buildings, and stretching the boundaries of the school district's computer network.

Last year, Gretna voters approved a $1 million bond measure to upgrade the public school system's network infrastructure to facilitate technological advances that would increase computer access for both students and administrators. This ambitious project required physically linking five school buildings using underground fiber cable buried 15 feet deep and sometimes more than one mile apart. Once the cable was in place, the challenge was to implement a school-wide network to support growth, boost performance and provide efficiencies across the district.

"The original system was slow. It seemed like whenever we would be in the middle of doing something, or the students were involved in a project, the Internet would come to a crawl. We were unable to use networked software, we had to use local software, which was costly and time consuming." said Dr. Richard Beran, assistant district superintendent.

"We needed to connect all of our buildings with a fiber line and improve the speed of the network."

"Our goal was to implement a system that would allow us to expand and grow efficiently and add reliability and speed to our network structure," Beran said. "And we wanted the ability to support and implement new facets of technology for our school system, such as Voice-Over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) phones and video-conferencing."

To find the right network solution, Dr. Beran turned to Patrick O'Neill, an education consultant with Computer Hardware Inc in nearby Kearny, Neb. He recommended a series of cost-efficient solutions from D-Link Systems, Inc., a leading network equipment manufacturer in California to replace the school district's previous wireless network. The hardware includes several strategically placed network switches -- the D-Link DXS-3250 which serves as the hub at the administration building, four DXS-3350SR units to serve as the main distribution frame (MDF) for the district, and nine DXS-3227P units to serve as the main switch in the administration building's central equipment closet.