Wilton Community Schools: How a Two-Person IT Team��Cut 98% of Support Tickets��and Got Three Years of Budget Certainty.��

“We’re��very happy��with ɫ���. It has really cut��down��the��IT��calls a lot. I have had all kinds of compliments from teachers about the fact that it��doesn’t��keep cutting out in the middle of their lesson. That has all gone away.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director, Wilton Community School District��

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Executive Summary��

At Wilton Community School��District��two people run IT for the whole operation.��Marston is the Technology Director. Dennis Pluym is��the��Technology Specialist.��Together, they run IT for the entire district across two buildings and��roughly 965��students. When it came time to replace��their aging��Airtame��system, they were direct about what mattered: it had to work on the devices Wilton��actually runs, cost what it cost without surprises, and not flood them with support calls.��

They evaluated their options, ran a structured pilot with ɫ���, and made the call. Dennis deployed 77 units across both��buildings himself. Justin locked in three years of predictable flat-fee pricing. Support tickets tied to wireless issues dropped��significantly. Teachers stopped getting cut off mid-lesson. Digital signage is live and expanding. Crisis response integration with Raptor is staged for this summer.��

At Wilton Community School District, ɫ��� delivers:��

• Wireless sharing across every display and device the district already owns��
• Unified campus communications, signage, and screen sharing on one platform��
• Measurable cost savings, IT efficiency, and budget predictability��

Where They Started: Aging Hardware, Unmet Expectations, and a Search for Better��

Wilton had been running on the same wireless sharing platform for five years. The��units required daily restarts to stay functional. When something went wrong, support was overseas, and a response could take 24 hours. When the time��came for��a replacement��decision and��the incumbent��was not aligned with their real needs.��

“We had to restart them every morning if we wanted to work all day. They wanted us to pay extra to��schedule the restarts, even though their product was buggy and needed to restart. That should have been in their core product.��That’s��why we left. Plain and simple…��ɫ�����hasn’t��had any of those problems.��That��has all gone away.”��

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist��

IFPs��weren’t��the answer either.��

Wilton had also looked at interactive panels over the years. They have a few. The story has been consistent:��high cost, significant training investment, and teacher adoption that never materialized. The district’s teachers work from short-throw Epson laser projectors on large whiteboards. They project, they annotate, and��that’s��what works for them. An IFP��doesn’t��change that.��

“With interactive flat panels, we do not get the adoption. Period. They are not worth the money��for��us.��It’s��a lot of money and a lot of training��to waste. What teachers prefer is to take a PDF, project it up there, and write��over it.��That’s��what they love.��And ɫ��� allows them to do that, and more if they want.”��

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist��

ɫ��� runs on every projector and TV��already��in place. No new hardware. No��refresh��cycle. The displays Wilton already��owns��got more useful, not more expensive.��

The Cost Case: Predictability, Value, and No Hidden Fees��

For Justin Marston, evaluating a new platform��isn’t��just about what��it costs at the start.��It’s��about what it costs over time, what happens when something goes wrong, and whether the pricing model respects the reality of a K-12 budget that��isn’t��growing.��

“My budget’s not growing, and everything else is going up. It seems like��K-12 education��is��the first place they start taking money from.��Don’t��nickel and dime��me, because��that will be the time I look for something��else.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director��

The��previous��provider had charged extra for a scheduling feature that existed specifically to manage a reliability problem in their own product. Justin had no interest in repeating that experience.��

“It doesn’t matter if it’s a dollar for 300,000 years — it’s not worth it if it doesn’t support the products we have.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director��

What ɫ��� offered was the inverse of that: a flat fee, a multi-year contract, and annual payment options that fit how school districts��actually manage��cash flow.��

“It’s��a flat fee, we��sign��a contract, I��know��for 3 years what��I’m��paying, and I��don’t��have to worry about it. That, I do��appreciate. And��it’s��nice to have payment options, if��you want to pay every year on that 3-year contract,��it helps��so that you��don’t��wipe your budget out in one year. That messes districts up — they just��can’t��afford one lump sum.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director��

Justin also noted that ɫ��� has continued adding features without turning them into separate line items. That matters to a Technology Director who has watched other vendors use platform momentum as an opportunity to charge more.��

“I love that��you’ve��at least not stopped innovating.��Keep doing what��you’re��doing.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director��

��When the Platform Does Its Job��and IT Teams Feel Direct Relief��

Dennis Pluym does everything himself. He runs cable, mounts hardware, handles installs, and fields the support calls when something��isn’t��working. Before ɫ���, a meaningful��portion��of his day was spent��managing around��a platform that��required��constant intervention. That��burden��is gone now.��

98%��fewer��support tickets.��

The shift in support volume after deployment was the clearest signal that the switch had��worked.��

“It’s cut��down my��calls considerably. If we had about 100 tickets a month,��we’d��get down to 2. And most of them are simple things, not really a ɫ��� issue, more of a user issue or a Chrome update, which has nothing to do with you.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director��

Teachers stopped getting��dropped��mid-lesson.��

The most consistent feedback from teachers��hasn’t��been��about new capabilities.��It’s��been about the absence of the old problem.��

“We’ve��heard several compliments about no more lag. They would get dropped and disconnected and��have to��reconnect. ɫ�����hasn’t��had any of those problems. It��doesn’t��keep cutting out and��stop��working in the middle of their thing. That has all gone away.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director��

Teachers picked it up on their own.��

Dennis ran a structured pilot before��committing to��a full rollout, specifically choosing his most demanding users on both ends of the tech comfort spectrum.��

“We picked our very pickiest teachers, tech literate and not tech literate. If I can get those two groups to work, I know��we’re��not going to have any issues. There was really nothing to learn. It was intuitive��enough,��they could figure it out. We��basically could��just throw it and say, here, you push that button, and they figured the rest out on their own.”��

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist��

��What Wilton Built: Campus Communications That Actually Reach People��

With the infrastructure stable and the IT load reduced, Wilton’s use of ɫ��� has expanded across both buildings. Wireless sharing is the core, but��it’s��not the whole picture.��

Signage across both buildings.��

Digital signage was already underway across several displays when this conversation happened. By��end��of summer, every screen in both buildings will be on ɫ���, putting campus communications on��every��surface students pass through.��

“We already have some digital signage going on right now. All of them will be by the end of the summer.”��

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist��

Visitors and guests can��present��without calling IT.��

For outside presenters arriving on unmanaged devices, Dennis solved the problem with ɫ���’s browser-based access and a printed card. The librarians handle it. IT never gets the call.��

“It’s��also nice that we have something you��don’t��have to download. You can go to a website, so for our people that come��in to��the school and��don’t��have admin rights, they can still go to a website, give them a code, and then they can broadcast for presenting. We made a little printout that we give to the two��librarians��so they��don’t��have to contact us at all. If someone comes in:��here’s��the passcode,��here’s��the web address, go.”��

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist��

Every display. Every device. Every visitor. One platform.��

“Every display, regardless, is going to have a ɫ��� on it.”��

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist��

��What’s Next��

Crisis response integration with Raptor is coming online this summer. The Wilton IT team is staging it deliberately, getting Raptor��stood��up first and connecting ɫ�����on��the back end once��it’s��ready. Visual emergency alerts across every display in both buildings will be the result.��

“We’re trying to get into Raptor, and that’s coming this summer, and then we will connect ɫ��� to Raptor��for visual emergency alerts.”��

— Dennis Pluym, Technology Specialist��

Beyond that, Justin’s message to ɫ��� is straightforward.��

“I love that��you’ve��at least not stopped innovating. Just��don’t��nickel and dime��me, and��keep doing what��you’re��doing.”��

— Justin Marston, Technology Director��