The Fox C-6 School District will put a phone in every classroom next school year, while paying a lower rate for phone services. The district also will continue to use Mercy Healthcare for its athletic training services at its two high schools.
Board of Education members voted unanimously on April 28 to approve three separate agreements that will cost Fox C-6 a total of $491,220.60 over the next four years.
Board members approved a three-year agreement with Voxtelesys for its 3CX phone system. Fox C-6 will pay Voxtelesys $7,513.73 to set up the phone system, and it will pay an annual service fee of $23,669.04.
The board also approved purchasing 1,162 YeaLink phones from CXTech to replace the district’s current phones, which are not compatible with the new phone system.
Fox C-6 will pay $85,989.75 for the new phones.
Board members approved a new four-year deal with Mercy Healthcare for athletic training services. The district has used Mercy’s athletic trainers for at least the last four years.
Fox C-6 will pay Mercy $70,000 for the first year of the deal, $75,600 for the second year, $79,380 for the third year and $85,730 for the final year.
The district also will pay an additional $4,000 total to cover home tournaments at Fox and Seckman high schools.
Phones
Fox C-6 is in the final year of an agreement with World Wide Technology to use the Cisco voice-over phone service this school year.
The district is paying $42,720 annually for the Cisco phone service, and it pays AT&T $15,963.96 for phone lines for a total phone service cost of $58,683.96.
JP Prezzavento, chief technology and communications officer, told board members on April 28 that the cost to continue using the Cisco phone service was going to balloon to $178,365 per year.
“Cisco is very proud of their product,” Prezzavento told the board. “Being a proprietary solution, they are in a cost increase phase. We locked in five years ago when costs were lower.”
Prezzavento said Voxtelesys charges less because the 3CX phone system is not proprietary. He also said the 3CX system offers additional features at no additional cost.
Prezzavento said the switch allows Fox C-6 to put phones, which will be connected to the internet through ethernet connection, in every classroom in the district.
“We have five schools that don’t have phones (in every classroom) right now,” he said.
Prezzavento told the board some of the additional features Fox C-6 will have available through the 3CX phone system include voicemail-to-email and a web-based directory making it easier for people to find the number they want to call.
He said the 3CX phone system offers enhanced 911 calling at no additional cost.
He told the board enhanced 911 not only provides the address of the building the emergency called is made from, but it will allow the district to provide the classroom number and a door number to enter the building through to emergency responders.
“That is included in the monthly cost,” Prezzavento said. “If we were to buy that separately with our current system, it’s like $17,000 a year.”
Prezzavento said the new phones will start being installed by July 7, and Fox C-6 will have all the phones installed and be switched over to the phone system before the 2026-2027 school year begins on Aug. 25.
Athletic trainers
Mercy submitted the only proposal to provide athletic training services.
Fox C-6 COO Tracy Schmidt said the district only received two proposals four years ago when it entered its current four-year deal with Mercy.
“The market for athletic trainers, especially in the high school world, is extremely difficult,” he told the board. “There aren’t many. Several in the area have left the metro area. It is a very hard circumstance. It’s long hours, late nights with games on weekends.
“Some school districts have chosen to look into internal options. I talked to athletic directors at all of our local schools, and they are having trouble also. There also were several school districts in the area putting up (requests for proposal) for the same services. We got ours out earlier to prevent not having options. It really is a tough market in this field right now.”
Board documents said Mercy will provide an injury rehabilitation program that will focus and prioritize the care of the injured athlete, and performance enhancement program that focuses on individual needs of the athlete and includes prevention of injuries and trained sport medicine physicians.
Schmidt said the Mercy athletic trainers currently assigned to Fox and Seckman high schools will remain at their current schools.
“Coaches and both athletic directors are very happy with the service,” he said. “This agreement is for four years, so that would pretty much take a class all the way through from freshmen to seniors. The relationship is big for our students and their support.”