Case Study: Jefferson County Public Schools achieves reliable, affordable district‑wide wireless and improved student engagement with Extreme Networks

Rural Public School District Relies on PCS to Improve Network Capabilities and Meet Technology Mandates

Jefferson County Public Schools, a rural K‑12 district in eastern Tennessee serving 7,500 students and 1,150 employees across 12 schools and six administrative offices, faced unreliable networking, a lack of wireless connectivity, unmanaged switches, multiple domains, and a small nine‑person IT staff stretched thin. After evaluating vendors, the district selected an Extreme Networks solution — delivered by partner Personal Computer Systems (PCS) — using B, C, D and S‑Series switches, ExtremeWireless, Extreme Management Center, Extreme Access Control and ExtremeAnalytics to meet budget and scalability requirements.

PCS and Extreme Networks deployed enterprise access points (initially funded for six schools via E‑Rate), virtualized servers, district‑wide wireless, access control, disaster recovery and a consolidated Active Directory with over 8,500 users, and supported 60 mobile device carts for testing. The Extreme Networks solution enabled proactive network management and daily monitoring, dramatically increased student engagement with mobile devices, reduced IT “firefighting,” lowered costs, improved district‑wide satisfaction, and positioned the district for further upgrades.

Jefferson County Public Schools

Don Devine

Technology Systems Manager