Case Study: Aledo ISD and Netsync Partner to Virtualize School Board Meetings
The District’s Need to Broadcast Meetings had to Seamlessly Integrate With Existing Solution
The Challenge
The challenges presented to Netsync’s K-12 customers due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak have created must-solve problems that require creative solutions. Students, teachers, and administrators are now relying on the Internet and mobile applications to fully support the learning experience. They’re also heavily relying on another entity to ensure the best interests of all involved are being considered, important information is being disseminated effectively, and that lines of communication remain open―school districts.
The Aledo, Texas Independent School District (ISD) is facing what thousands of independent school districts are throughout the country—how to advance education and remain productive while enabling students, educators, and administrators to remain safe at home. When you’re an ISD that educates over 6,000 K-12 students in 8 different schools, your responsibilities, strategies, and tactics to support distance learning are not only scrutinized, but must be transparent. For Aledo ISD, that need for transparency came in the form of an upcoming school board meeting.
Like most school districts, board meetings are held in community forums where citizens are able to attend in person and have a view into the school district’s important decisions, policies, and routine business activities. Due to the Covid-19 responses detailed by state and local governments, social distancing guidelines are preventing the community from participating in these important meetings. For the Aledo ISD, Netsync had the answer.
Netsync Enables Virtual Attendees to Use the Website They Know
Netsync’s collaboration practice created a solution that provided Aledo ISD with the best of both worlds—the ability to collaborate with board members and stream it live to social media. Doing so would accommodate as many attendees as needed. It not only enabled virtual attendees to watch live, but access the board meeting on a website they were highly familiar with and had been using for years—YouTube. Cisco Webex, a district-owned platform for virtual meetings, provided the environment required to allow board members to join, regardless of their location, and conduct business as usual. Netsync’s engineers, using software that allows for integration between Webex and social media streaming platforms, were able to quickly craft, launch, and support the service for the Aledo ISD.
Netsync is one of the preeminent technology solutions providers for K-12 schools and higher education. Their collaboration experts have years of empirical experience designing and deploying solutions to advance education and elevate productivity for schools, colleges, and universities. In addition to holding numerous elite-level certifications from many of the most notable OEMs in the world, Netsync is a Cisco Gold Master Collaboration Partner. For years, Netsync’s collaboration professionals have successfully deployed Cisco Webex, a leading education and enterprise solution for video conferencing, team collaboration, online meetings, screen sharing, web conferencing, and cloud calling.
“The COVID-19 pandemic turned our school operations completely upside down and forced us to create new procedures on the fly,” said Brooks Moore, Aledo ISD’s Director of Technology. “Within minutes of our request, Netsync was engaged and ready to help implement a Webex solution that allowed us to not only meet virtually, but stream live to YouTube. We couldn’t have done it without them.”
Perfect for ISDs, City Governments, Even Multinational Corporations
While the solution Netsync designed and deployed for Aledo ISD is perfect for school board meetings, it’s an ideal solution for any organization that needs to live stream a Webex meeting to an unlimited audience, whether on YouTube or Facebook Live. Whether it’s a meeting for a school board, a city council, or for shareholders, Netsync’s collaboration experts can deliver what they have for years—advanced solutions that enhance collaboration, elevate the user experience, and keep users productive, informed, and connected.
