Idaho state lawmakers declared the Idaho Education Network (IEN) defunct on Tuesday. This network provided broadband internet and Idaho Digital Learning Academy (IDLA) course access to students across the state of Idaho, including at Sandpoint High School.

District Court judge Patrick Owen ruled in Nov. that the state’s $60 million contract is illegal, and it was declared on Feb. 11 that the contract was “null and void,” Randy Wittwer, the Director of Technology for the Lake Pend Oreille School District, said in an email.

“In legislative session yesterday, a decision was made to allocate funding to school districts to pay for Broadband services individually.  We now have a request for proposal posted as we are legally obligated to do for these services,” Wittwer said.

This means that while the IEN is no longer functioning, the Lake Pend Oreille District, and districts throughout Idaho, will still have the opportunity to pay for Broadband singularly with the funding provided by the state.

While the state is experiencing a significant challenge with this ruling, “[Lake Pend Oreille School District is] actively pursuing every avenue to assure that our schools continue to have Broadband access without interruption,” Wittwer said.

“There are things in the works right now at the district office,” Rob Lindner, the technology support at Sandpoint High School said.

While Sandpoint High School will no longer be affiliated with the IEN, it is unlikely that students would lose access to WiFi at the school or lose access to internal servers or file storage.

As of Tuesday, Feb. 24, the Lake Pend Oreille School District had transitioned successfully from IEN to the new network provider for Internet service, according to an email sent out by Wittwer.