2019 E-Rate RFP Documentation

Welcome to the 2019 E-Rate RFP Documentation page for Huerfano School District Re-1.
District’s BEN:  142372
District’s FCCRN:  0011609328

For the 2019 Funding Year, we are seeking Request for Proposals for the following Category 2 services: (Links to RFP’s will be posted here and on the USAC portal).

Please review RFP’s for details regarding each category two service requested.

  • UPS/Battery Backup – 4 Total Units. 4 Units will be installed at Peakview School.
  • Firewall/Caching Services – 2 Total Units. 1 Unit will be installed at Gardner School. 1 Unit will be installed at our main campus, which serves Peakview School and John Mall High Schools with one shared Internet Connection.
  • Switches – 31 Total Units. 18 units will be installed at Peakview School. 3 Units will be installed at Gardner School. 10 Units will be installed at John Mall High School.
  • WAP (Wireless Access Points) – 53 Total Units. 40 Units will be installed at Peakview School. 13 Units will be installed at Gardner School.

We are looking for specific product or manufacturers where applicable. Alternative manufacturers can be suggested, however please review specific RFP’s.

Updated: 1/7/2019

We are not seeking RFP’s Category 1 services at this point because we are under contract for our Internet Access through April 2021.

More Information can be found on the USAC EPC Portal.

Update:  1/15/2019

We had some questions regarding RFP-Cat2-FY19-2 – Content Filter/Firewall/Caching Server, from at least one vendor.

Here are the questions and responses to their questions.

Q. How much bandwidth does Huerfano School District RE 1 have (or is upgrading to)?
A. Our RFP explains this on page 5 (Part I, Numbers 3 AND 4) on our “RFP-Cat2-FY19-2”.
We have two campus locations. Our Main campus, located at 375 West Pine Street in Walsenburg consists of Peakview School and John Mall High School. They are sharing a single 200mbps dedicated fiber Internet Access. Our remote campus, Gardner School, located at 25421 Hwy 69 in Gardner (25 Miles Northwest of Walsenburg), has a dedicated wireless microwave link from our ISP with up to 55mbps for Internet Access.

Q. What investment is/would be needed to upgrade that bandwidth?
A. At this time, we are not planning an upgrade on bandwidth due to being under current contract, and cost of bandwidth being prohibitive without E-Rate funding.

Q. How many daily users do you see on the network?
A. This was partially answered on our RFP “RFP-Cat2-FY19-2”, in Part I, Number 3. We have approximately 330 students at Peakview School and approximately 160 students at John Mall High School. Staff add in an additional 60 between the two schools. In total for our MAIN CAMPUS, 550 average daily users.
At our Gardner School, we have approximately 75 students with an additional 15 staff. In Total for our GARDNER CAMPUS, we have 90 average daily users.

Q. Is there any 1:1 or BYOD program planned or in place?
A. We do have a 1:1 iPad distribution to all of our students in 1st grade classes and up.

Q. What kind of web content do you use in the classroom?
A. We see mostly webapps, youtube (or teachertube), news sites for kids.

Q. How important would the ability to cache https-secured content and video content be to the District?
A. Having the ability to cache https-secured content and video content is a minor importance for our Main Campus, as we have enough bandwidth available to handle the traffic.
However at our remote Gardner School, we don’t have quite the reliable connection necessary to support heavy usage of such content without the possibility of caching that type of content.

Q. Any particular function the cache should fulfil on your network?
A. As indicated by previous answers, we want to conserve our bandwidth where possible. While caching services are not required for our normal usage, it does provide an avenue that will utilize our bandwidth more effectively. We want to have an in-line solution that helps alleviate bandwidth-hogging content, easy to setup and manage and a solution that is cost-effective compared to purchasing more bandwidth.