Case Study: Novato Unified School District achieves reliable high-performance Wi‑Fi and simplified cloud management for hybrid learning with RUCKUS Networks

Reopening Novato Schools with RUCKUS® Wi-Fi and cloud management opens more possibilities

Novato Unified School District, which serves about 8,000 students across multiple elementary, middle and high schools, faced a critical networking challenge: an aging Cisco Wi‑Fi system that “hiccupped” every 15 minutes and a management interface so cumbersome the IT team kept the network largely static. Those interruptions became intolerable during the pandemic as the district moved to hybrid learning and relied on Zoom, online curriculum and a growing number of student devices.

The district implemented a phased rollout of CommScope RUCKUS Wi‑Fi 6 access points and moved to RUCKUS Cloud management. The result was consistent, glitch‑free performance in high‑density environments, much simpler multi‑site administration, faster guest network provisioning and proactive monitoring that even helped isolate cabling and firewall issues. The upgrade also opened the door to IoT use cases and future expansion, giving the district confidence to support hybrid learning and large event spaces.

Novato Unified School District

Ryan Green

Network Supervisor