Here’s a link to my full story at spokesman.com on today’s all-day legislative hearing on Idaho high school broadband, post-Idaho Education Network. The joint legislative committee will meet again in August, and members said they want to hear more about how other states handle the…
Private timberland owners are urging state officials to consider closing some public land due to extreme fire danger, the AP reports. Private forest land owners who normally keep their land open to the public for hunting and other recreation told the state Land Board this…
A few really odd details have emerged this afternoon at the Legislature’s Broadband Access Study Committee hearing, as Senate Majority Leader Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, repeatedly questioned Greg Zickau, chief technology officer for the state Department of Administration, about the now-void contract for the Idaho…
Greg Zickau, chief technology officer for the Idaho Department of Administration, after recounting the history of the now-defunct Idaho Education Network, told lawmakers, “There are a few things I would do differently if we were doing this over again.” Among them: The focus on a...
Former Senate President Pro-Tem Bob Geddes, now director of the state Department of Administration, told the Legislature’s school broadband access study committee today that the Legislature’s vision over the years went beyond a network providing broadband service to schools with the Idaho Education Network. “We…
The Legislature’s Broadband Access Study Committee is currently getting a primer on the federal e-rate program. E-rate is the largest federal technology funding program, and was initiated in 1998 by the Federal Communications Commission. It supports technology infrastructure for schools and libraries to the tune…
Idaho's state Land Board has voted to modify a northern Idaho timber sale to include helicopter logging, after a federal court blocked road access over nearby private property within a Wild & Scenic River corridor...
Camille Wood, who has been technology director for the Idaho Falls School District for the past 13 years, said her district contracted with Syringa Networks for broadband service after the Idaho Education Network went dark. “We are better off than we were during the IEN…
David Roberts, technology program administrator for the Boise School District, said according to national standards, his district should have 26 gig of bandwidth for 2017. “And right now, going into this year, we have 1.5,” he said. “You can see that we are far from...
When the Coeur d’Alene School District went out for broadband service to replace the defunct Idaho Education Network, it got four bids, and local firm Ednetics had the lowest bid, district Technology Director Seth Deniston told lawmakers today. “They were the lowest by quite a...
Alan Dunn, superintendent of the Sugar-Salem School District, is giving the first of four school district presentations to lawmakers as part of today’s legislative hearing on school broadband service. Dunn said his is a small district, with 1,550 students, in a rural farming community north…
Schools now rely on broadband service for everything from telephones to classroom instruction and materials. “Without the internet, education just stops,” Will Goodman, president of the Idaho Education Technology Association, told lawmakers who are holding a day-long hearing today on school broadband. He said some...
When Idaho schools made the switch from the Idaho Education Network to local district contracts with vendors for high school broadband, “No students loss classes due to a loss of internet, and no seniors were unable to graduate due to a loss of internet,” Idaho…
Out of the $3.64 million that the state Legislature sent out to school districts this year to cover their own local contracts with vendors to provide high school broadband service after courts overturned the $60 million state contract for the Idaho Education Network, only $2,265,800...
The Idaho Supreme Court has set an Aug. 3 ceremony to swear in Justice Jim Jones as the next chief justice of the court, succeeding current Chief Justice Roger Burdick, who will remain on the court; chief justices are elected by the court and serve…
News, happenings and more from the Idaho Legislature and the state capital.
