If you are a Verizon customer who has used your phone on our campus since last week and were surprised by how many bars you had, it wasn’t an April Fools' Day prank. Verizon, at no cost to our district, recently finished making improvements to the tower on the west side of town near the convergence of SR 613 and I-75, which has vastly improved cell service on our campus and throughout the village.
Because of the direction the original equipment on the tower faced, the school and village were in a dead zone with little coverage despite other areas close by receiving service. That led members of the Van Buren Local Schools’ Facilities Committee, including both school personnel and community members, to start exploring potential solutions in 2023. They first considered adding a cell tower on our campus and went through the process of working with a company to determine the location and details of the project, but then it was decided that adding equipment to the existing tower would be a better alternative.
At that point, VBLS Facilities Committee member Andy Fisher contacted VB parent Kyle Thwaits, who works for Verizon. Looking back on the importance of having that connection, Fisher said, “I want to thank the VBLS Facilities Committee members, Kyle, and the Verizon team for resolving this long-standing issue of little to no cell service in the district. This is just one of many recent examples of the district identifying a need, prioritizing it, and working with our local partners to resolve it, helping move the district into a more desirable position.”
Working with Thwaits, the committee determined it was possible for Verizon to add additional fiber and update their current tower to provide 5G capabilities to the area including our school campus. Thwaits said, “As a parent who frequents many school events, I knew the frustration of slow or non-existent service. By integrating our 5G technology, we’ve dramatically increased data speeds and bandwidth for the entire area. This means the network can now handle hundreds of devices simultaneously, which is huge for the safety of our students and gives fans the speeds to live-stream sporting events without the lag we’ve dealt with for years.”
Ed May, Van Buren’s mayor and VBLS Facilities Committee member, said, “The new upgrade to the cell tower is significant for both the school and the village. From a safety aspect, many calls would cut out or be dropped because we only had 1-2 bars. That was concerning if there was an emergency. Now, with the upgrades, we have 5 bars, and those emergency calls should go through without any issues.”
The best part about this upgrade is that there was no cost to our district for this significant improvement in service. Dr. Jason Inkrott, Van Buren Local School District Superintendent, said, “I have talked to district residents who voiced their concerns that not having cell service on campus has been a safety concern for many years. With the infrastructure Verizon added, school personnel and students will now be able to communicate in emergency situations both during the school day and at sporting events. Students will also be able to contact their parents after school, and visitors attending extracurricular events will have increased communication ability. This improvement will have a significant positive impact on our district, and we greatly appreciate Kyle’s work to bring this upgrade to reality.”
We appreciate Verizon making these improvements to increase the safety, security, and ease of communication for our students, staff, families, and visitors to our campus!