Plymouth-Canton 2013 Technology Bond Projects Underway

When Plymouth-Canton students start back to school this fall, they will have some nifty new technology thanks to voters passing the $114.4 million bond issue in May.

School Board members voted unanimously to award technology consultant contracts to three separate vendors in order to help manage the 2013 technology projects.

Jim Casteel, Plymouth Canton's Director for Integrated Technology Systems, said the three projects are distinctly different and by awarding bids separately, the district was able to save about $45,000 instead of going with one firm to oversee all three projects. 

The first project was awarded to Plante Moran who had the lowest bid of $225,000 to oversee installation of the fiber wide area network. This project will connect all the buildings, upgrade network switches and expand existing wireless access to support the one-to-one computing initiative.

The second project contract was given to SHW Group, with the low bid of $203,174.40 to oversee 21st Century classroom equipment installation, including interactive displays, audio, document cameras, portable digital recording cars, editing equipment, computer labs and STEM (Science and Engineering Technologies) labs.

The last project was awarded to Barton Malow, who had the lowest bid of $48,150, to oversee construction of the new middle school and renovation of the three existing middle schools to add two general computing labs and STEM labs. 

"You know from the outside you may think, 'well they're just going to put the classroms the same way' and that's not the case," Casteel said. "They're going to determine which path the wire is going to take, how much wireless coverage we need in that building, what kind of electrical supply we're going to need."

"There are three distinct projects there, it doesn't mean a firm couldn't have done all three, but wouldn't have the same person doing all three," Casteel said.

Casteel said he is currently working with Plante Moran now in hopes to have the entire Park high school infrastructure upgraded to support new wireless in all three high schools before school starts back up. 

In addition, Casteel said he will be looking at different classroom equipment with SHW Group shortly to get those materials ordered quickly.

"Some of this, of course, will continue on after school starts back up," he said. "The focus is to get kindergarten classrooms, 6th grade classrooms and 9th grade classrooms equipped with their wireless and interactive display tools. We're speeding that process up right now. After school starts, they will go in afternoon and continue work."

Casteel said he expects the wireless to be done by January 2014 when they will release the first set of Chromebooks to sixth and ninth-graders.

"We're very excited about the projects," he said. "All of the contractors coming on board are very capable. We're hoping it will all go quickly and well."