Clay School Board Purchases New Main Phone System

The Clay County Board of Education Central Office will soon be working with a new telephone system.

Finance Director Ashley White said the current system goes down every time there is thunder or lightning in the area, and sometimes even when there is only rain. White said the new system will allow for Clay County High School and Celina K-8 to join the same server once it is time replace those phone systems.

“It’s out of parts,” White said. “We’ve bought the last thing that they could find, and we were down for about a week and a half the last time they had to go find a part for it, so they just don’t make the parts anymore. It’s obsolete. The last time we were down, just the other day a couple weeks ago, it was two days. So it’s just getting to where we just can’t keep it repaired.”

Attendance and Technology Supervisor Derick Upchurch said the current system is one incident away from being damaged beyond repair. Chairman Benji Bailey said the new system will cost $18,664.

“There’s one part, if it goes out, hopefully not tonight, if it lightnings, it’s done,” Upchurch said. “It will not work again because they cannot get the replacement part.”

White said the new system will come from local company Twin Lakes, the same company that installed the old system around ten years ago. She said the company would begin installing the system immediately after the quote is approved.

Bailey said another quote came from Central Technologies that was similar to Twin Lakes’, but Twin Lakes’ plan was the only one that allowed for further expansion over time.