J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School, UT

Situation

Located in Salt Lake City, Utah, J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School’s mission is to guide its students into becoming respectful, responsible, and productive citizens through quality academic instruction grounded in Catholic teachings and tradition. However, as technology became a more integral part of the classroom experience throughout the years and the COVID-19 pandemic necessitated remote learning capability, it became increasingly apparent that the school didn’t have a sufficient internet and Wi-Fi solution in place.

“Our main building dates back to 1957, and back then, the nuns could not have foreseen the need for the type of network and Wi-Fi connectivity we expect today,” said Lisa Romero, the principal at J.E. Cosgriff. “Through the decades, we adapted our technologies to fit our growing needs, but the result was that we built a piecemeal network infrastructure that was completely inadequate.”

The school’s infrastructure included erratic cabling and too few Wi-Fi access points. This situation created dead spots where students and faculty couldn’t access the network or the internet. Additionally, Lisa wanted to segregate students and staff on the network and limit certain activities that students could do on their devices

“It became clear to us that we had to rebuild our infrastructure completely,” said Lisa.

Solution

After analyzing the campus and understanding the school’s needs, Groove Technology Solutions devised a plan for the new network infrastructure. That plan included installing fiber-optic cabling between the buildings and building a seamless campus-wide Wi-Fi solution. Now, network users can walk between buildings and work in basement rooms without fear of losing connectivity.

“It was a big project for us to commit to, but we obviously needed to do it,” said Lisa. “The question was whether the technology that was being installed would be able to handle everything we needed from it now and in the future. I believe the answer is yes. Now that we are set up for success, we can continue adding layers of technology.”