Florida District Deploys Wireless Solution To Support BYOD

St. Lucie School District in Florida has implemented a wireless solution designed for education to support its bring-your-own-device (BYOD) initiative for students, teachers and guests at all 44 of its schools.

The district selected an "education-grade" wireless solution from Meru Networks with Meru Identity Manager "because of their ease of management and the way that they make it easier for users to move seamlessly from point to point," said David Jasa, IT program manager for the district, in a prepared statement. According to the company, the district also selected the Meru Networks solution for its high-density device support, ease of deployment, and Meru's MobileFLEX architecture.

According to information on the company's site, MobileFLEX is a unified wireless network architecture for BYOD. It's designed to make it easier for IT staff to secure the network and manage capacity and bandwidth when large numbers of users are connecting with personal mobile devices.

The district also implemented Meru's Identity Manager software, which is designed to simplify secure BYOD provisioning, reduce IT workload, and improve the user experience, according to information from the company. Its Smart Connect module enables self-provisioning of client devices with a single click, and its Guest Connect module lets internal "sponsors" create guest accounts or lets guests securely self-register.

According to Terence O'Leary, assistant superintendent of instruction for the district, Meru Identity Manager "keeps our IT staff from having to travel throughout the district to help people get access to the network and allows teachers to focus on teaching instead of providing IT support services.

St. Lucie School District is located on the east coast of Florida. The district serves more than 40,000 students and employs nearly 2,800 teachers.

About the Author

Leila Meyer is a technology writer based in British Columbia. She can be reached at [email protected].

Featured

  • illustration of a human head with a glowing neural network in the brain, connected to tech icons on a cool blue-gray background

    Meta Introduces Stand-Alone AI App

    Meta Platforms has launched a stand-alone artificial intelligence app built on its proprietary Llama 4 model, intensifying the competitive race in generative AI alongside OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, and xAI.

  • laptop screen with a video play icon, surrounded by parts of notebooks, pens, and a water bottle on a student desk

    Studyfetch AI Tool Generates Video Explanations Based on Course Materials

    AI-powered studying and learning platform Studyfetch has introduced Imagine Explainers, a new video creator that utilizes artificial intelligence to generate 10- to 60-minute explainer videos for any topic.

  • interconnected geometric human figures forming a network

    CoSN: School Staffing Is the Top Hurdle to K-12 Innovation

    Hiring and keeping educators and IT staff remains the top challenge for K-12 education in 2025, according to the latest Driving K-12 Innovation Report from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).

  • glowing digital brain made of blue circuitry hovers above multiple stylized clouds of interconnected network nodes against a dark, futuristic background

    Report: 85% of Organizations Are Leveraging AI

    Eighty-five percent of organizations today are utilizing some form of AI, according to the latest State of AI in the Cloud 2025 report from Wiz. While AI's role in innovation and disruption continues to expand, security vulnerabilities and governance challenges remain pressing concerns.