School and ENA officials said the network has now been successfully operating for more than 90 days providing students and teachers access to increased Internet capacity, more applications and other on-line educational resources that previously weren’t available for classrooms. Officials pointed to a number of new applications currently in use to take advantage of more up-to-date learning resources. One is a new web-based literacy program that is being used in a wireless laptop classroom at Westridge Middle School called BLASTT - Building Literacy and Skills Through Technology.

Other web-based applications include gradebooks, FCAT Explorer, web-based portals for parents and teachers and student-tracking systems. These improved features, officials said, are providing increased productivity for teachers and enhanced learning opportunities for students in a diverse and rapidly expanding student population.

“In partnership with ENA, the Managed Broadband Internet Access project has enabled significantly increased access to web-based resources and applications for the classroom,” said George Perreault, Director, Instructional Technology & Library Media Services for OCPS. “Prior to the new network, it was simply not possible for an entire classroom of students to effectively access a website simultaneously. Our goal is fostering constant innovation and utilizing educational technology to prepare our students for the 21^st Century, and this increased bandwidth to all our schools enables us to make that a reality.”

ENA was awarded the three-year contract last year and all of OCPS’ K-12 schools are connected to the managed district-wide high-speed network that provides a fundamental infrastructure to support student achievement. OCPS currently has a full-time enrollment of 176,000 students and 12,000 teachers. It is the 11^th largest school system in the country with 175 schools and the fourth largest in the state of Florida. OCPS presently has approximately 50,000 computers in its schools that are using ENA’s managed district-wide network to access the Internet.

“We could not be more proud of this network and the educational benefits it will bring to Orlando public school students,” said David Pierce, President and CEO of ENA. “At the end of the day, we’re in the business of providing school systems with the best network and communication services possible to support teaching and learning. We’re confident we have such a system in Orlando, and look forward to serving the District over the coming years.”

About Education Networks of America (ENA)

ENA is a leading managed network service provider in the design, deployment and management of network and communication services for school systems, libraries and governments. In 1996, ENA created one of the first statewide K-12 networks in the U.S. and has earned a reputation as experts in distributed networks and voice solutions. Today, ENA manages multiple statewide and district-wide education and library networks, successfully serving over 450 school districts, 2 million students, educators and administrators, and over 300 libraries. For more information about the company, visit www.ena.com.

About Orange County Public Schools (OCPS)

Orange County Public Schools (OCPS) is the nation’s 11^th largest school district with more than 176,000 students. OCPS is the fourth largest school district in the state of Florida. The school district employs more than 25,000 people and is the second largest employer in Orange County, Florida. OCPS has 175 schools, which are divided into six area learning communities. An ongoing aggressive building program will ensure that all district facilities are modernized and accommodate the region’s rapid growth. OCPS reflects the rich cultural diversity of the Central Florida community. The district’s major academic indicators have consistently improved over the past several years.