Have you ever been frustrated when your internet connection has failed and you can’t watch your favorite tv show or surf the web? What if the internet connection was so poor you couldn’t use it for learning at school? That’s a reality for many students living in rural parts of Oregon. But not anymore for students in the Ukiah School District.
Due to a five-year effort, the Ukiah School District Broadband Fiber Construction project has been completed. The project brings high-speed internet to Ukiah School, which serves students in grades K-12.
Prior to the completion of this project there was no access to high-speed internet in the Ukiah School District. According to Nick Lapp, Chief Technology Officer at InterMountain Education Service District (IMESD), the school has been relying on a Verizon Wireless LTE hotspot connection for internet access, which has not been sufficient to support student and teacher access to online educational resources.
This broadband project, completed by the nonprofit Inland Development Corporation, entailed construction of an all-underground fiber-optic cable spanning over 50 route miles between Pendleton and Ukiah. According to Inland Development, the terrain and weather made construction difficult, and every conceivable construction technique was utilized, including rock drilling, conduit plowing, trenching and miles of rock hammering to place the conduit. The Pendleton ODOT (Oregon Department of Transportation) office played a critical role in Inland’s permit administration of this project , which happened primarily within ODOT’s right of way.
When Ukiah’s students and teachers return for the 23-24 school year, they will experience internet speeds 40 times faster than the current connection, and the fiber provides the capacity to scale beyond 400 times faster in the future.
“This is just the kind of project that we love to make happen,” said Jill Parker, President of Inland’s board of directors. “Bringing high-speed internet into rural areas of Oregon like Ukiah will widen horizons for staff and students alike, empowering them with all the benefits and learning opportunities that come with this technology.”
IMESD began working with the Ukiah School District on this project in 2018 and successfully secured the $7.4 million funding for it by 2021. Permitting and construction began in 2021 and the project was completed June 22, 2023. 90% of the construction was funded through a federal internet access affordability program for schools and libraries called E-rate. 10% came from the state of Oregon through the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund. “And this means that the construction cost to Ukiah School District was zero!” Lapp said.
IMESD assisted Ukiah through the technical procurement process, advocating and searching for funding sources, filing E-rate forms and coordinating the construction project. Lapp said completion of this project will afford students in Ukiah the same access to educational enrichment opportunities as many other students in Oregon. “Getting fiber to Ukiah seemed like an impossible feat and took many years to come to fruition and completion. I’m pleased to see years of hard work and dedication by our team at IMESD pay off, and I am so excited for the opportunities high-speed internet access will provide students in Ukiah,” Lapp said.
Laura Orr, Superintendent of Ukiah School District, said the fiber project increases opportunities for expanded learning programs at all grade levels, adaptive curriculum and teaching tools and much more. The community depends on the school’s library; the high-speed internet will increase accessibility to regional digital library resources and support the community. “This level of connectivity will be incredibly impactful to not only our staff and students, but also to our greater community. We are all very excited for the coming year and what this project will allow us to grow into,” Orr said.