Claremore Public Schools

Claremore Independent School District is a K-12 school district in Oklahoma. With a total of nine schools, the district comprises four elementary schools, one junior high school, a performing arts center, a Project CEEP (Cooperative Exceptional Education Program) site, and an alternative education center. With 11 sites in all, the organization serves over 4,000 students and employs 470 teachers and staff.

“A network isn’t a luxury anymore, you have to have a robust network in place to do business.”
- Terry Simpson, Director of Technology, Claremore Public Schools.

Claremore Public Schools needed a network that would enable students and teachers to access homework and grades, and administrators to access financial applications, 24 hours a day. As part of a five-year plan that included sharing applications across buildings, including a student management package, the IT team began looking at new infrastructure solutions as well as new phone systems. Ease of use, the ability to perform moves, adds, and changes in-house, and cost-effectiveness were absolute priorities.

“The interface for configuring the ShoreTel system is intuitive and easy to learn, and it enabled the IT team to install and maintain the new ShoreTel IP phone system themselves. It is a clean and full-featured system that’s scalable, and one port on the ShoreTel switch supports up to 254 voice mail users. That’s amazing.”
- Terry Simpson, Director of Technology, Claremore Public Schools.

After seeing product demonstrations and speaking with numerous customer references, the schools' IT team chose Extreme Networks for its infrastructure needs, and ShoreTel for its IP phone system. Extreme Networks provided an end-to-end switching solution based on BlackDiamond, Alpine, and Summit switches. ShoreTel provided nine of its ShoreTel 120 IP Voice Switches, as well as a PRI switch. The school district also has over 150 ShoreTel IP Phones and 75 licenses for voicemail extensions. Benefits include:

• The high-performing and reliable Extreme Networks infrastructure provides the Quality of Service (QoS) necessary to support VoIP while also supporting demanding financial and educational applications.
• Teachers who do not need a handset receive an email if they have a voicemail, which they can check from their desktop or any available handset or telephone.
• With ShoreTel Director’s Web-based interface, the district can handle moves, adds, and changes in-house with minimal support staff. This results in savings of up to $2,000 per year.
• Enhanced productivity is made possible with a built-in suite of versatile, real-time tools that put flexible features, telephony and IM control, and collaboration services at employees’ fingertips.

“We strive to find the best solution on the market and one that is the most efficient. For example, the ShoreTel system is the easiest thing I’ve ever configured."
- Terry Simpson, Director of Technology, Claremore Public Schools.