In November of this past year, I introduced the idea of forming a committee to discuss the possibility of creating a VERY large fiber network to join all of the ESC 11 districts into a WAN type environment. The idea was tossed out to the TAC members and within less than two weeks, we were not forming a committee as much as we were pursuing the project for this year!

After several months of RFPs, planning meetings, discussions, board presentations and LOTS of paperwork, we are submitting our forms to USAC to seek funding for a multi-million dollar project that will span 43 of our districts with 51 connections during Phase 1. This is one of the largest projects ever tackled by the ESC and has garnered attention from across the state. Hopefully our hours upon hours of planning will be put into action to create an environment across our region that breaks down any barriers for student and teacher connectivity. 

Oh yeah…AND we will have 200Gb of Internet Access coming into our building to serve our districts. Plenty of bandwidth for all!

More to come I am sure…

Sometimes you have to weather the storm to be able to see the blue skies beyond. That was not a very eloquent statement though it was the best I could come up with on as little sleep as I have gotten recently. Now I am choosing to not go into too much detail with this post though it is going to be something that will shape my future either positively or negatively based on how I/we respond so it has to be part of the journey. 

Recently our ESC data center was attacked by a nasty little thing known as Ransomware. Taking down multiple systems and causing multiple days and nights of work, the incident has exposed several things that have been hiding under the surface and need to be addressed. My team has stepped up to work any and all required time to get us back on track to which I am eternally grateful. 

To make things worse, the entry point for this attack was patched to the required level as directed by the security standards. We happened to be the benefactor of a “Zero Day Hit” which means that we were attacked with the new version before the security gurus knew it was possible. The updated standards came out the next day. Thanks guys! (just kidding)

So…to put a silver lining on the situation. At least I can say, “We were FIRST!”

Excited would be a minimal way of stating how I feel right now! After returning from a trip to Los Angeles with 5 of my colleagues, I am beside myself knowing that the far fetched idea of bringing the STEAM Carnival to DFW is about to happen. This is something that I have been working on with my folks here at the ESC as well as the team from Two Bit Circus. Things like this don’t just happen without the help of dedicated people, the relentlessness of the individual, and a lot of luck on the side.

Without knowing final details it is looking like we will be hosting the event over the course of several days at the ESC. I can’t wait to see the kids light up the way that my son and I did when we were guests of the Carnival in San Francisco. We are going to blow the minds of the North Texas districts with this event. 

In addition, we had the pleasure of visiting a very cool place called Trash 4 Teachers. Their concept of providing teachers with clean recycled materials for their classroom is brilliant. Brent turned us onto this place while we were there. Hoping to get them as part of our Carnival as well. Fingers crossed!