Business Solutions for Summer 2019

4 S U MM E R 2 0 1 9 BUSINESS spotlight The technology and bandwidth needs of K-12 schools have grown exponentially to take advantage of today’s educational opportunities to meet the needs of administrators, educators, staff, and students. After reviewing the current and future needs, Gillespie CUSD #7 is at the front of the class when it comes to choosing Gigabit internet from Madison Communications. Gillespie CUSD #7 became a Madison Communications cus- tomer on July 1, 2019, after which we installed fiber-optic cable to provide a secure Direct Internet Access (DIA) network on its campus to serve all the school system’s buildings. This network was engineered and constructed to provide the school system with dedicated (not shared) access to 1 Gigabit of upload and 1 Gigabit of download speed. More Speed Supports More Technology Mark Carpani, Technology Director, said, “The decision was an easy one to select Madison Communications for our internet service at Gillespie CUSD #7. Madison Communications is a local company located in Staunton; their pricing is very com- petitive; and they were able to get us the 1 Gig fiber internet we needed. By contrast, we had only a 20 Mbps x 20 Mbps DIA connection from our previous internet provider.” He continued, “We have a great Administrative Team here at Gillespie CUSD #7, led by Superintendent Joe Tieman. He understands the importance of technology to education and has supported the improvements we’ve made during my time as Technology Director. We have been very busy and continue to strive to be the best in the area.” The district is now able to deploy campus-wide Wi-Fi cover- age, Voice over IP phones, and interactive whiteboards—all connected to the state-of-the-art fiber network installed by Madison Communications. This deployment also provides a future-proof network that can be expanded to meet the growing needs of technology that serves rural school districts and allow for the expansion of learning opportunities for the approximately 1,325 students enrolled at Gillespie High School, Gillespie Middle School, and Ben-Gil Elementary. Gillespie CUSD #7 School system is first Madison Communications customer to get Gig internet