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Trustees green lit a proposed $698,000 upgrade to Del Norte Unified School District’s wireless network infrastructure, replacing wireless access points that are at the end of their life with new units that came out in November.

Ryan Bahten, DNUSD’s director of information network services, said he plans on replacing 379 access points that are currently housed indoors. There are 13 others that provide internet access outdoors, but “we’re just talking about the inside ones,” he said.

DNUSD currently uses Wifi 5, which is the fifth generation of WiFi technology, Bahen said. Its hardware is currently at the end of its life and is no longer warrantied. He proposed upgrading to Wifi 7, which became available in November.

“[Wifi] 6 has been out for almost 10 years so we’re going straight to [Wifi] 7,” he said. “[It] offers simultaneous connections, better range. We expect to see more benefit in our classrooms for our students and our staff.”

According to Bahten, the total cost breakdown for the upgrade is about $155 per user, which includes students and staff. He said the $698,285.98 cost would come out of a special reserve DNUSD set aside for technology infrastructure, called Fund 40.

Bahten also pointed out that state testing is done via Chromebooks and iPads as are other district assessments.

According to Assistant Superintendent of Business Jeff Napier, DNUSD has contributed to Fund 40 every year after the DNUSD had to borrow $3.5 million for technology upgrades.

District 3 representative Frank Magarino was absent.