Bridging the Digital Divide at the Montebello Unified School District

Expanding student horizons with help from ConvergeOne and the Cisco partner ecosystem.

It’s east of Los Angeles. With 85% of kids on free or reduced lunch. But many of the staff and teachers at the Montebello School District were students there not long ago. And they’re back, teaching, leading, looking for ways to level the playing field. The biggest issue? Access to technology.

When they called us, we put them in touch with ConvergeOne, one of our Cisco Ecosystem partners with a successful SLED practice. What began as a tool to automate attendance turned into a multi-year digital transformation strategy.

ConvergeOne says…

Our goal was to modernize the entire school district. We started with a Right Foundations assessment. We went from closet to classroom to understand the environment, the gaps, the limitations, and what’s already in place. We discovered that Montebello was basically 30 years behind. No reliable wi-fi. Hand built servers in their data center. Nothing was even connected, much less automated.

We started with the core in the data center. Their security posture. And, from there, towards the campus cores, over high speed connectivity and finally pushing towards each individual classroom where it could have the biggest impact on learning models and methodology of teachers and students.

It was more than any one company could do alone, which is why we rely on partnerships. We pulled together a team of eight other Cisco partners whose expertise combines to deliver this entire end-to-end solution.

We’ve come a long way already. The data center is finished. We’ve built 27 computer labs and installed over 1,200 all- in-one desktops. The next step is fiber optic connectivity to each and every school site and wi-fi in every classroom.

Big difference for the school. Recurring revenue for us, and a collaborative solution we can repeat.

Nine partners. One solution.

Thanks, ConvergeOne and team!

The story doesn’t end there.

1. See how they did it.

https://youtu.be/la98mVwe3V8

2. Read the story.

3. Scan the slide.