Sweet Home School Board members took a step Monday, Jan. 12, to modernize the district’s IT network capabilities by approving the purchase of nearly $1 million in new hardware and internet services.
Board members, all but Amanda Carter of whom were present for the meeting, approved a $201,792 purchase contract with Questivity, 80% of which will be covered by federal E-rate funding. Thus, it is contingent on receiving that funding, according to a staff report presented to the board.
The E-Rate program helps schools and libraries afford internet access and network infrastructure by providing substantial discounts on such services, according to the staff report. It is financed by fees that telecommunications companies charge on consumers’ phone bills – usually listed as the “Universal Service Fee.”
The winning bid came from Questivity, based in California, which provides IT infrastructure equipment, training and services to customers such as the school district. Questivity has also worked with the Philomath and North Santiam school districts, according to the report.
District IT chief Sam Nothiger told board members that the district’s current online hardware “is aging quite a bit,” from seven to 13 years old, which is causing bandwidth and other issues, and requires a continuous subscription for use.
“That’s never fun to deal with every single year,” he said.
The new equipment would include a router/firewall, 80 switches, 203 access points and several network racks and cabling/connectors, according to the staff report. The “next-generation” firewall will help with security, intrusion detection and prevention, and improved wifi speed and security, Nothiger said.
“It would be a massive upgrade that would set us up for the next five or 10 years,” he said.
Questivity’s bid for the project was the second-lowest of the four responses received by the district, which included a cheaper price that lacked some of the components the district wanted, according to the report.
Business Manager Kevin Strong told the board that the district has saved for the project, which will cost it about $40,000.
“Increasingly, technology is a cost of doing business in education, so it’s something that we need to keep up with, just so we’re serving the classrooms well,” he said.
The board also unanimously approved a $775,500 contract with FatBeam Fiber to provide internet service to the district’s four elementary schools.
Currently, the school district leases a 200-megabit-per-second fiber connection from CenturyLink/Lumen Technologies to supply internet to those schools.
The new contract with FatBeam would increase capacity to 10-gigabits per second, with the ability to scale up to 100 Gbps.
As with the hardware, the project is contingent on receiving federal E-Rate funding and a grant from the Connecting Oregon Schools Fund, which has already been confirmed, according to a staff report from Nofziger and Strong.
According to the report, FatBeam’s bid was less than half of what two others proposed. The report noted that funding is already confirmed for that project. FatBeam has provided similar projects for larger school districts – Bend-LaPine, St. Helens and Tigard-Tualatin, according to the report.
Nofziger said he hopes that, once all the funding is approved, the underground installation for the FatBeam services, which would be followed by hardware installation, could start in mid-summer and would likely last about a year. He said he’s hoping to complete it by October of 2027.
“It’s a major project,” he said. ”It’s going to have to be done on weekend or when people are not in school or not at work because it does require bringing down the system to replace the equipment.”
He noted that the FatBeam work may cost the district “zero,” due to federal and state grants it has received.
Also at the meeting, the board voted unanimously to give district staff the go-ahead to create language for a bond resolution and ballot title for a proposed bond measure that, if passed by voters in the May election, would qualify the district to receive $12.25 million in Oregon School Capital Improvement Matching grant funds.
Strong suggested that board members approve five “guiding objectives” for the bond:
- Maintain the current tax rate being paid by local property owners from the bond approved in 2017.
- Prioritize student safety and security in spending.
- Upgrade classrooms and career learning facilities.
- Create durable, long-lasting schools that, Strong said, should last into the next century.
- Leverage grants to reduce local costs.
He told the board that, although “there are a lot of needs,” improvements to the high school, which has some 40 unsecured entrances, would be the primary focus of the bond and grant funds.
He said board members would be asked to approve the actual language in their February meeting.
In other action, board members:
N Voted 8-1, with Mary Speck opposing, to appoint former board chair and longtime member Jason Redick to the district’s Budget Committee.
N Heard a report from high school Leadership teacher Tomas Rosa on the program, which, he said, includes 40 students, 20 upperclassmen and 20 sophomores and freshmen, the latter taught by Ryan Adams.
Rosa said one of the more recent high points of the program has been visits from local community leaders, including Mayor Susan Coleman, Police Chief/City Manager Jason Ogden, Fire Chief Nick Tyler, CTC President Milt Moran, former USA Wrestling president Steve Thorpe, former UPS regional manager Jim Hagle and others such as college professor Brandon Harvey and Rob Younger, longtime football coach at Sweet Home and current executive director of the Oregon Athletic Coaches Association.
“The overall goal is to get Leadership kids some experience listening to people who are leaders, so they understand the pathways to becoming a leader,” Rosa said, adding that young people often have trouble figuring out how the problem-solving experience they get in Leadership classes translates into the real world.
– Accepted the resignation of Sweet Home High School Vice Principal Luke Augsburger, who is taking a job at Western Governors University, of which he is an alumnus of two master’s degree programs.
His last day will be Feb. 4 after 18 years with the district. Augsburger was a teacher at the high school, then served as principal at Foster School from 2014 to 2023 before moving to the high school.
Board Member Rachel Maynard made a statement regarding his departure: “I accept your resignation with extreme sadness, both for our community and staff members. Your contributions, commitment, integrity and grace have meant a great deal to me. You will be truly missed and I am grateful for your 18 years of service to the Sweet Home School District.”
Board Member Mary Speck made it a point to get up and shake Augsburger’s hand.
Thorpe, who heads the district’s certified employees union, also expressed appreciation for Augsburger’s service.
“I appreciate what you’ve done, Luke,” he said, looking Augsburger’s way.
“It has been absolutely incredible having him at the high school and what he brought to, as (Principal Ralph Brown) calls it, ‘the team,’ and what he did for students is very commendable.”
In remarks to the board, Augsburger expressed “heart-felt thanks to the Sweet Home community, the staff, the families, for 18 years that I was able to serve… in this capacity. I’ve really appreciated it and I’ve appreciated my time spent in Sweet Home and with Sweet Home students.”
– Heard a request from Thorpe, representing the certified employees union, to consider making the Monday after Winter Break a prep day for teachers. He noted that many school districts have incorporated that into their calendars. Otherwise, he said, teachers have to come in during the break on their own time to prepare for the resumption of classes – “and many do,” he said.
“I’d just like us to look at that,” he said. “I do know that a friend of mine who teaches in the Newberg School District said that once they did that, they’ll never go back. What it does for the teachers coming in, getting everything ready to go, it’s been good.
“It’s a two-week break and I’d love to pull the numbers on attendance of students on that Monday when they come back, but it’s down. But it’s a scramble when you come back.”
Board Member Rachel Maynard said her sister is a teacher and had mentioned how the off day in her district after the Winter Break was “really nice.”
Board members discussed the issue as they discussed the proposed 2026-27 academic calendar.
Supt. Terry Martin told the board that the state has mandated a certain number of instructional days for students and adding an extra prep day for teachers would require “tweaks” to the calendar.
He noted that the calendar is subject to a 30-day review period by district employee unions before it will be submitted to the board for approval.
Board Member Jenna Northern asked whether there were extra days built into the schedule for weather closures, to which Martin replied that there were none. He said decisions to close or delay schools are always made on the morning of those school days.
“You have to have transportation and meals available for it to count as a school day.”