Lawrence school district collecting feedback on troubled Wi-Fi system

The Lawrence school district is gearing up to make widespread improvements to its issue-plagued Wi-Fi, and district officials are gathering complaints.

If you’re a teacher, staff member or student in the district, you’ve likely had firsthand experience with some of the issues: problems with login, dead spots, weak signal and slow load time.

The district’s technology services department has launched an online feedback form to collect details about problems with the Wi-Fi. The form allows you to label complaint reports by school, room, device, network and time of day.

Earlier this month, the Lawrence school board approved a $79,000 wireless site survey that will assess the problems with the district’s Wi-Fi system. The information gathered from staff and students with the complaint report will be used in the assessment of the system, said Jerri Kemble, assistant superintendent of educational programs.

The Wi-Fi services and consulting firm Wireless Training & Solutions will conduct the site survey over a three-month period. The consultants will assess all 22 (20 schools, the Lawrence College and Career Center and district offices) of the district’s buildings. The survey will begin in the next few weeks and will take about three months.

The consultants will suggest changes, and work to improve the Wi-Fi system will be done over the summer. The $79,000 covers the survey itself; the cost of the improvements aren’t yet known.