8 Reasons Why K-12 IT Teams Use Meraki

Cisco Meraki enables K-12 school and school district IT teams to provide students and staff with the tools, resources, and access they need to succeed in a constantly evolving educational environment. See why K-12 customers across the United States use Meraki to simply confi gure and manage their network, while transforming how their students learn everyday.

Complete Visibility and Control

Schalmont Central School District 1,800+ Students

Being able to manage their entire network from an easy-to-use, cloud-based dashboard was just what Schalmont CSD needed. The Meraki dashboard provides complete visibility and control, with valuable insight into network usage and simple remote troubleshooting tools.

"I go into the dashboard and look at the colors: is it green, yellow, or red? It's so simple for me to see what the problem is immediately, and I can quickly change something if it is incorrect.  is information is at my fingertips all the time, without digging." - Terri McCreadie, Director of IT and Network Admin

Digital Learning

Reading School District 17,800+ Students

Student success today often depends on reliable access to digital resources in and out of the classroom. That's why Reading SD made the investment in a robust network to ensure students are continuously connected.

"thanks to the vastly superior management capabilities and the minimal amount of time spent managing, troubleshooting, or configuring Meraki hardware, we have more time that we can dedicate to making our classrooms 21st century learning centers." - C.R. Hiestand, Network and Systems Administrator

Quick Deployment

Lee's Summit R-7 School District 18,100+ Students

With 34 sites, and only three full time network employees, the IT team at Lee's Summit R-7 SD was able to pre-confi gure all of their hardware in the Meraki dashboard, making it easy to deploy 400 switches and 1,700 access points in a single summer.

"In the course of a summer, we totally ripped and rewired everything on our network. Our educational technology upgrade could not have been possible without the total infrastructure upgrade that we did with Meraki." - Amy Gates, Executive Director of Technology

E-rate Elligible

Ascend Public Charter Schools 4,300+ Students

With the help of E-rate funding, the IT team at Ascend Public Charter Schools was able to replace their disjointed network with Meraki switches, access points, and security appliances across their 10 schools.

"The complexity of managing four sites with four separate networks was a nightmare. By leveraging E-rate funding, we are now streamlined and simplified under one dashboard, without having to make the same configuration changes 5 or 7 times." - Emeka Ibekweh, Managing Director of Technology

Built for Lean IT

Navigator Schools 600+ Students

A lean IT team is responsible for managing the network at Navigator Schools. With an easy-to-use dashboard, Meraki is intuitive for the team to confi gure, manage, and troubleshoot access points, switches, security appliances, and student devices - with no command line required.

"Meraki is wonderful because I can hand over the network management to site techs that have little to zero networking experience. And yet, we can still troubleshoot 20x faster within the Meraki dashboard than any other network I've interfaced with - with no extra bodies." - Benjamin Moeller, Director of Information Technology and Operations

Broadband and Network Scaling

Oakland Unifi ed School District 48,000+ Students

When leadership at Oakland Unifi ed SD decided to adopt new standardized digital resources for teaching and testing, the IT team knew it was time for a network upgrade. After deploying Meraki, they were delighted to see that the network handled the increase in traffic beautifully, with no issues on testing day.

"We first implemented Meraki to support the SBAC, and we have since further leveraged our computing resources to support significant growth in educational technology. These initiatives are critical to supporting student achievement, and the always-on access provided by Meraki is instrumental to our success." - Susan Beltz, Chief Technology Officer

1:1 Device Management

Wayne Highlands School District 2,600+ Students

When Wayne Highlands SD implemented a 1:1 student to device program, they needed a mobility management solution to monitor these devices. Now, over 1,200 iPads are managed with Meraki Systems Manager, making it easy to track and update all district owned devices.

"I took an iPad home to see if the geofencing worked - within minutes I had a text message and email alert saying the iPad left its territory. I can check a GPS map to see where an iPad is; a student left it on a bus and we were all watching it go up the highway." - Scott Miller, Director of Technology

Digital Equity

Socorro Independent School District 44,500+ Students

Leadership at Socorro ISD was determined to provide all students with equal access to technology, no matter which school they attend or their personal situation. They deployed a robust, fl exible, and scalable network that enables 21st century learning for all students.

"Socorro ISD is a compassionate, innovative district. We treat and educate all student as if they are our own. We have prioritized funding for technology so that all students have equal access to the Internet, regardless of their campus or personal situation." - Dr. José Espinoza, Superintendent of Schools

Documentation:

Download the 8 Reasons Why K-12 IT Teams Use Meraki Data Sheet (.PDF)