Node Site Best Practices

Read about the recommended practices for K12HSN Node Sites.

K12HSN Budget Development Process

The budget development process is the formal method through which the K12HSN establishes its program priorities, goals and service levels for the upcoming fiscal year. The budget development process occurs within the procedures and protocols established by the Imperial County Office of Education, a California local education agency, and the parent organization under which the K12HSN is operated.

K12HSN Budget Development Process

Upgrade Decision Process for Node Site Circuits

In order to provide the California Department of Education with an annual budget request and documentation of proposed circuit upgrade projects for the ensuing year, the K12HSN will conduct data collection between January and April of each year. The data elements collected from school districts served by each node site will include current utilization peaks, number of devices in use at served schools, and the degree to which the school site relies on cloud-based (or off-premises) services. DataLINK will serve as the repository for the information collected.

Twice annually, in October and in May, utilization for each node site will be studied and compared against prior year information for an analysis of trends in growth in utilization for each node site.

In May of each year, the K12HSN will translate the data collected, at the school and district level, as well as the node site peak utilization numbers into a ranking for proposed changes or upgrades. Any node site that is regularly reaching 50% of its capacity will be included in a list that will be posted by CENIC as its Exhibit D attachment to their Request For Proposals and E-rate Form 470. Exhibit D will include requests for replacement circuit pricing for multiple options in order to permit the program and the California Department of Education the opportunity to consider various approaches to meeting the bandwidth needs of a node site.

The Network Implementation Committee will be convened in June of each year for a review of the proposed node site upgrades. Input from the committee will be incorporated into the list of sites for which CENIC will seek new bids via the E-rate Form 470, Exhibit D.

CENIC will post these documents beginning in July and the process will close in late August or early September. The proposals received will be reviewed during September by CENIC and their core engineers, as well as by K12HSN staff members. During October staff members of K12HSN will update their multi-year projection documents and, from these data, develop a budget request for the following year. In November, K12HSN will deliver to the California Department of Education its annual budget request with multiple options reflecting a proposal for all potentially helpful upgrades and at least one additional proposal that undertakes the most time-sensitive upgrades and excludes less essential projects. In addition the proposals will, whenever available, include proposals for incremental upgrades that may be more cost effective.

K12HSN will take direction from the California Department of Education and the Department will forward K12HSN’s budget request to the Department of Finance.

K12HSN Annual Circuit Upgrade Timeline

K12HSN Upgrade Decision Process for Node Site Circuits

Policies Related to Connection to the CalREN Network via the K12HSN

Eligibility

• Eligible K-12 public education institutions include public school districts, county offices of education (COE’s), and the schools that they operate, including Charter Schools that are recognized by the California Department of Education.
   
• Not-for-profit educational institutions serving six (6) or more students that have registered a "Private School Affidavit" with the California Department of Education, and thereby secured a County-District-School (CDS) Code, shall be eligible to connect to the CalREN Network via a K-12 Node Site. Fees charged to qualifying institutions shall represent a full recovery of costs for services provided by the Node Site, the K12HSN or the CalREN Network including any lost CTF or E-rate discount revenues.
   
• Other participating CENIC segment sites may connect to K-12 Node Sites provided that any incremental costs or lost CTF and E-rate discount revenues are reimbursed to K12HSN and that such connection is advantageous to the design of the Network.
   
• Other sites locally determined to provide a direct educational benefit to K-12 may be eligible provided such connection is advantageous to the design of the Network, it is mutually cost-effective for the connecting site and the K12HSN and/or Node Site, and/or provided that any lost CTF and E-rate discount revenues and other incremental costs associated with their connection are reimbursed to the K12HSN. However, no commercial entities may be connected under any conditions, as described below. Any other CENIC or operational fees may also be required as reimbursements to CENIC. Any such requests for connection to the Network will be submitted to the K12HSN for review and approval in consultation with CENIC.

Connectivity Terms

• All entities qualifying for CalREN Network connectivity under this policy shall be subject to applicable K12HSN and CENIC policies such as acceptable use policies, Internet filtering and screening policies, and policies requiring approved technology plans for all participants. Fees charged to these non-public, non-profit agencies, organizations and institutions for services described herein shall cover the costs incurred by K12HSN, CENIC or the respective K-12 Node Site to provide them said connection to the CalREN Network.
   
• County Offices of Education and School Districts shall not extend network services via the CalREN Network to for-profit agencies, organizations and institutions, regardless of any previous arrangements that may have existed between them.

Policy for Alternate Network Connections

Connections to the California Research and Education Network (CalREN) are facilitated through K12HSN Node Sites in each of the 58 counties throughout California. Node Sites are provided the necessary equipment and circuit capacity to serve districts in the respective Node Service Area.

Each Node Site is administered by a lead agency, most commonly a county office of education, who serves as a Node Site pursuant to the K12HSN Node Site Agreement. This agreement stipulates the roles and responsibilities of both the Node Site and the K12HSN program.

A “Standard Connection” to a Node Site is one in which the local Node Site and districts in its service area define roles and manage and implement connectivity using local resources according to locally-defined cost-sharing agreements. These connections terminate on local Node Site equipment and are managed independently of the K12HSN/CalREN systems.

An “Alternate Connection” is defined as a network connection that terminates on the CalREN equipment located at the Node Site. This connection is independent of the local Node Site resources and is managed and operated by the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) under contract with the K12HSN.

Both a standard connection and an alternate connection result in the connected district being physically “on the network.” However, the standard connection permits local sharing of resources and provision of services that are often beneficial to districts as they connect.
 

Node Site Agreement

The node site agreement provides the terms and conditions regarding a site serving as a K12HSN node site. This Memorandum of Understanding between the K12HSN/Imperial County Office of Education and the 73 node sites that serve K-12 schools and districts throughout the State establish the expectations held for each other.

Node Site Agreement for 2018-2023

Waiver Form: Term O of Node Site Agreement

Node Site Agreement SPIN Waiver Form (Section 4.k/4.m)