The East Central Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) in eastern Colorado faced the daunting challenge of providing member school districts with equal access to advanced educational opportunities for students in rural school districts. East Central BOCES is a consortium that provides educational support services to 21 school districts in central eastern Colorado.

To achieve this objective, the consortium partnered with Colorado State University, Colorado Department of Transportation, Colorado University and the Colorado Department of Education to bring a state of the art distance learning video conferencing network to each school. The project was initially funded with a Rural Utilities Service grant and support from member school districts. Mark Ricken, a driving force behind this project since its inception and superintendent of the small, rural school district of Arriba/Flagler says, "To survive in our small and isolated school districts, we have to think outside the box. This distance learning system will allow us to bring in quality foreign language and upper-level classes that we might not otherwise be able to provide."

The Video Network for Education and Training Services (VNETS) WAN connects 17 rural school districts. The WAN’s unique design uses fiber and wireless to provide 1 Gbpt on the fiber side to 33 MB and 100 MB connections on the wireless side. Trillion Partners, Inc. was selected through the RFP process to assist in engineering and implementing the project. Trillion continues to service the VNETS WAN 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, under a leased managed agreement. "This allows the districts to concentrate on educational opportunities, curriculum and instruction, and let those with technology expertise worry about making sure the bandwidth is available and operating correctly," says David Van Sant, superintendent of schools in Strasburg, Colo.

The project has been in development for three years and has the potential to leverage the time and impact on the staff and students throughout member districts. "It will assist in meeting higher standards from NCLB and future university entrance requirements by creating connections and providing opportunities to bring expertise into the local classrooms and share instructors across district boundaries," says Floyd Beard, executive director of East Central BOCES. "Districts will also be able to deliver dual-credit classes through the Colorado Community College system, join virtual field trips and pursue other similar opportunities wherever an IP address connection exists. This is a large, multi-partnered project that will positively impact the students of the east central plains of Colorado for many years to come."