Case Study: Reading School District achieves district-wide reliable Wi‑Fi and simplified IT management with Cisco Meraki

Staying ahead of the education technology curve with a full-stack solution

Reading School District, the fourth-largest district in Pennsylvania with 25 buildings and 19 schools, needed reliable district‑wide wireless, simplified centralized management for a growing fleet of devices, and better video security — all while being run by a single Network and Systems Administrator. After struggling with a multi-vendor environment and duplicate on-site configurations, the district selected Cisco Meraki (MR access points, MS switches, MX security appliances, Systems Manager, and MV cameras) to replace legacy systems and reduce operational complexity.

Cisco Meraki deployed a full‑stack solution — 1,400+ Meraki APs (MR42) across 19 schools, MS225/MS350/MS425 switches, two MX450 appliances aggregating 6 Gbps (plus a vMX100 in Azure and an MX64 via site‑to‑site VPN), Systems Manager for 300 iPads, and MV cameras — all managed from a single dashboard. The result: one-template changes pushed instantly to all APs, easier troubleshooting and non‑technical staff training, Motion Search reducing video review to under 20 minutes, improved video quality and coverage, and significant time savings that let IT focus on classroom initiatives.

Reading School District

CR Hiestand

Network and Systems Administrator