The Auburn Enlarged City School District will complete a critical upgrade to its technology infrastructure in the next several months.

Sometime between Labor Day and Christmas, the district will rip out its old analog telephone system, developed in 1995 and installed in 1997, and replace it with a brand new digital system, improving telecommunications throughout the district as well as with the outside community. The project is estimated to cost roughly $430,000.

District officials have been pushing for this upgrade for years. Receiving technical support and spare parts for the system operated by Nortel has been getting harder with each passing year. There are times throughout the school year when the system crashes, leaving it nearly impossible for parents or community members to reach anyone at district schools.

Funds in the near $15.7 million capital project were earmarked for such an upgrade, but the idea was put on the back burner after voters twice defeated the 2008-09 proposed operating budget last year.

Then, last winter, Matt Crider of ECC Technologies, a technology consultant firm with whom the district contracts, proposed a leasing program through a regional Board of Cooperative Educational Services that will allow the district to revamp its system while also receiving state aid.

In May, the board of education unanimously approved a five-year lease with Onondaga-Cortland-Madison BOCES, through which the district will obtain equipment from a telephone solutions provider for the duration of the lease. Once it expires, the district can choose to upgrade and sign into another lease, or stick with the technology, which becomes district property.

Money was budgeted into the district's 2009-10 spending plan to pay for the lease, and the state will reimburse the district through BOCES aid at a rate of 72 percent.

All that had to be decided was what solutions system to work with. During a meeting of the board's Long Range Planning Committee last month, Crider introduced committee members to two systems, one operated by Nortel and the other by Cisco Systems Inc.

Nortel, which is undergoing a debt restructuring due to a recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, would refurbish the near 15-year-old equipment to complete the upgrades at a cost of $431,440 before BOCES aid.

“Dave (Beyor, coordinator of network and technology) and I personally have some pretty big concerns about reusing things like power supplies that have been running non stop for 11 years,” Technology Coordinator Sandy Wagnor said, “and now we want them to run for six more, that concerns us a little bit.”

Through Cisco, the district would receive brand new equipment that could be installed at no disruption to the existing system. They quoted the district a cost of $435,712.39 before aid. The board opted for this solution, which will be installed at the first lengthy school recess.

“I would say that investment had a good lifespan,” Crider said regarding the existing Nortel system, “and by the time you fully retire it, it will be pushing 15, 16 years. I think the district can feel good about getting that return on its investment.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 239 or alyssa.sunkin@lee.net