Posted on

Ridgewood School Board Embraces Antiquated Technology

nest 3rd gen works with 1

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, Resident Saurabh Dani posted the following on the Facebook page, “It Takes a Ridgewood Village”, reminding the Ridgewood blog that many years ago (2006?) the BOE was dead set on adding fiberoptic connections through Verizon when clearly the technology existed for broadband wifi connections though out the Ridgewood School system. The better technology was rebuffed for the “done deal” with Verizon.

There cannot be just one correct way of doing things and when 70 MILLION $ is at stake, our board of ed MUST ask for more than one expert opinion on how to best spend the money.

The current plan to spend 70M relies solely on one person’s opinion and experience.

In the current proposal, one of the big-ticket items is 5$ per square feet of new thermostats (DDC control), which will allow remote monitoring of temperature in each room.

Mr. James A Morgan asked the architect if current/existing Ethernet infrastructure can be used to install these new thermostats and the architect’s answer was a “NO” – he thinks there is a security risk and these thermostats need to be hardwired using cat5 – or cat6 cables throughout the schools. This one item alone is expected to be a few million dollars.

A quick google search shows that the industry is actually moving away from hardwired controls – and is opting for wireless technology – which can be used to improve school’s wifi system too (i.e. these thermostats can not only share the school wifi as Mr. Morgan suggested – sharing this expense with school’s IT team will potentially improve quality of our WiFi networks throughout the schools).

https://facilitymanagement.com/wireless-controls-building-a…/

WE SHOULD NOT RELY ON ONE ONE PERSON’S EXPERIENCE TO COMMIT TO 70M $. WE MUST EXPLORE MULTIPLE WAYS TO DO THINGS AND PICK THE BEST TECHNOLOGY / SOLUTION.

safe image

3 thoughts on “Ridgewood School Board Embraces Antiquated Technology

  1. This is the problem when you depend on “a village” rather than taking personal responsibility.
    .

  2. WiFi is an additional, not “better” technology. Hardwired connections are always going to be more secure, reliable, and faster.

  3. Schools, especially older, fallout-shelter worthy ones, are notoriously bad WiFi (and mobile data) venues. Fiber with WiFi repeaters locally is a common and reliable method.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *