Broadband banned

SANDPOINT - Students and staff at Lake Pend Oreille School District may find they've been cut off from the outside virtual world when they arrive at school on Monday.

Broadband Internet connections throughout the district and the state may go dark if private, for-profit Internet providers follow through with a threatened shutdown.

CenturyLink and Education Networks of America have communicated their intent to cut Internet service to the Idaho Education Network, a high-speed broadband system that links over 200 Idaho public schools statewide, if they aren't paid for "the past few months of service," according to the IEN.

That's because on Feb. 11, Idaho's 4th District Court affirmed an earlier court ruling that a $60 million contract between the state and the Internet contractors violated Idaho procurement laws. The ruling rendered the contract void, and set the stage for last minute legislative action - and educational chaos for school districts.

"It has monopolized a lot of time for our district," Lisa Hals, LPOSD chief financial and operations officer, said Wednesday. "We still don't know if service will be interrupted."

The rural LPOSD is completely reliant on the IEN for its broadband access and high school video conferencing services, Hals said in an email sent to district staff Wednesday.

The district, Hals wrote, "has been working fervently to secure new broadband services before next Monday." Phone services were switched earlier this week, she noted.

"While it is the district's aspiration that new broadband will be secured in the absence of interruption for both academic and administrative functions of the district, we cannot commit solidly to a uninterrupted transition at this juncture," Hals wrote.

Legislators in Boise have been scrambling as well.

A tired-sounding Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, said in a phone interview Wednesday that a stop-gap. $3.4 million bill had passed the legislative Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee Tuesday and was awaiting assignment of a bill number. Once printed and assigned to a legislative chamber for consideration, the emergency bill could land on Gov. Butch Otter's desk for signature as early as this week.

"Bills of this nature have been known to pass in one day," Keough said.

A veteran legislator, she felt the chances of the bill making it through the Legislature this week are "99 percent."

"I don't think there is any opposition to the bill," she said.

But it's too little, too late for school districts. Even if the bill is passed before the threatened Monday shutdown, it won't help school districts maintain existing broadband service - or pay for it. Districts are essentially on their own, and will need to establish individual contracts with broadband providers. Once a contractor is hired and a contract signed, school districts can then submit invoices to the state for reimbursement from the bill that will soon be considered by the state Legislature, Keough said.

Schools had been informed of that fact, advised of proper procurement procedures, and given a "shortened process" to work individually with broadband providers, according to Keough, who has been working closely with the three school districts in her legislative district. All three, including LPOSD, were in contact with providers, Keough said.