Case Study: YES Prep Public Schools achieves 100% college acceptance and cost-effective unified communications with HPE Aruba Networking

Aruba Wi-Fi & Ms Lync Help Make College Dreams Come True at Yes Prep

YES Prep is an open‑enrollment charter school system in Houston serving about 9,000 students from low‑income communities with a mission to close the achievement gap. With a lean IT staff of seven and an aging PBX that failed after Hurricane Ike, the district needed a reliable, scalable, low‑maintenance network to support unified communications, growth across dozens of square miles, and strict budget constraints.

YES Prep deployed Aruba WLAN running Microsoft Lync, standing up a full UC and Wi‑Fi solution in weeks with an initial cost under $3,000 per campus and under $2,000 to add a new site—saving roughly $80,000 versus a new PBX. The Aruba/Lync combo (500+ APs, UC dashboard + Lync SDN API) delivered strong QoS, simplified operations, enabled teacher collaboration, Office 365 access for students, seamless upgrades to 802.11ac, and reliable disaster recovery while supporting rapid campus expansion and sustaining the school’s student achievement goals.

YES Prep Public Schools

Troy Neal

Director of Information Technology