WELCOME TO WALLOWA COUNTY ESD REGION 18

Wallowa County Education Service District, officially known as Region #18 Education Service District, serves approximately 1,000 students in four school districts over an area of about 3,500 square miles. Home school and private school students are also served. The ESD is governed by a locally elected Board of Education. Serving the student population and school districts of the region are dedicated specialists, enthusiastic teachers, and loyal classified employees. The District takes great pride in the quality and scope of its education and support service programs for students and school districts, where excellence is expected.

January 7^th, 2022

Press Release

Contact: Gretchen Piper

gpiper@r18esd.org

541-426-4997

GRANT SECURED FOR INTERNET UPGRADE TO IMNAHA BRIDGE SCHOOL

Wallowa County ESD was recently awarded $202,500 of grant funding by the Oregon Department of Education to improve the internet connection to the Imnaha Bridge School.

The Federal E-Rate program provides subsidies to school districts to improve internet infrastructure for their students and learning environment. This grant project supplements the Federal E-Rate funds by contributing the remaining estimated costs through the use of the State’s GEER II funds, as directed by the Governor’s Office.

With this grant funding, Wallowa County ESD is able to file with the E-Rate program, to cover the entire $750,000 upgrade cost. Contracts are in place with Ziply Fiber, and engineering work is already commencing.

Providing quality internet to students of Wallowa County has been an ongoing challenge for many years. We would like to sincerely thank all the many parties that helped bring this benefit to our students, including:

· The Office of Governor Kate Brown

· Oregon Department of Education

· Intermountain ESD CIO – Cheri Rhinhart

· State E-Rate Coordinator – Jen Thul

· Joseph School District Board of Directors and Superintendent – Lance Homan

· Ziply Fiber