Schools

Upper St. Clair Schools Replacing Phone System

The new system will be in place by the 2012-13 school year.

The Upper St. Clair School Board voted in favor of replacing the school district's phone system.

The new system will be installed before the start of the 2012-13 school year and will be leased for $35,000/year for seven years.

Technology Director Ray Berrott said the item had been cut from the budget for the last five years and he pushed for board members to approve the measure this year.

Find out what's happening in Upper St. Clairwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

He gave a number of reasons why the new phone system is needed:

  • The phone system is more than 20 years old.
  • It's at capacity, which means no more phone lines can be added.
  • The system runs on software from 1998.
  • It's getting more and more expensive to maintain because no one manufactures the parts anymore. Berrott has to buy some parts from ebay.
  • There is only caller ID on the phones at the and .
  • There is only a crisis alert at the high school and central office.
  • The system can only hold 23 calls at one time.

The board voted 8-0 to replace the phone system. School Director Louis Mafrice was absent.

Find out what's happening in Upper St. Clairwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Berrott said the new phone system will make the schools safer. The system will also have call tracing.

The district will reuse the existing phones to save some money on the new system. 


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