As the new school year ushers in new changes to Wi-Fi technology and district policies, Homestead students and teachers take notice of differences in access to online tools.
The internet at Homestead (HHS) in the 2025-2026 academic year is certainly different from what it was in 2024-2025; Mr. Brady Ament, server administrator for the Mequon-Thiensville school district (MTSD), explained what specific changes have been made.
“The first change that was made was that we increased our bandwidth…we were working with one gig of bandwidth and we were able to increase it to five gigs of bandwidth,” Ament said.
He further described the increase with a metaphor.
“If you think about it as a doorway for information to flow… that doorway was one gigabyte, but if you increase that doorway by five times, that’s what we did with that equipment. So, we allowed more information to flow through at once.”
Additionally, Ament spoke on the replacement of some old or dysfunctional technology around the building that was a previous hindrance to school internet speeds. The technology behind school internet is not the only change; the policies surrounding what students can and cannot do with HHS Wi-Fi have changed as well.
“[Online restriction policies for MTSD] all reference back to keeping our students safe,” Dr. Lauren Croix, MTSD Director of Educational Services, said.
“We have some settings within that [the firewall] that say don’t let anybody access fill-in-the-blank website because of the content.”
Dr. Croix further said, “We have a second layer where we look at some different policies… within the program we use that say here are the categories of websites which ones should be blocked and which should be available.”
Wi-Fi at Homestead is dictated primarily by three things: the machinery that provides it and the district policies that safeguard it are the first two. However, to fully understand Homestead internet, the reaction of students and teachers must also be taken into account. Ms. Abbie Gerczak, social studies teacher, gave insight into the student and teacher experience with Homestead’s Wi-Fi.
“There have been students with research that [online restriction] can be kind of difficult, but that’s part of what we teach… how to find good resources. So, some of that helps, but I also know it can hinder. I’ve been able to chat with our team in the library media center and they’ve been able to help with that [students facing online restriction during research],” Gerczak said.
