Modernizing voice communications at district scale
In my role as supervisor of Telephone and Data Wiring for Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS), my team and I oversee E-Rate funding along with internet, dark fiber, cellular, and communication services across the district. Supporting a school system that serves more than 130,000 students, over 20,000 employees, and spans roughly 500 square miles requires balancing operational reliability, budget stewardship, and long-term technology planning every day.
Communication systems are one of the most critical, yet often overlooked, components of a district’s infrastructure. Voice platforms support emergency response, daily operations, family engagement, and districtwide coordination. When those systems fail, even briefly, the impact is immediate.
A Phone Isn’t Just a Phone
In education, a phone is a lifeline that connects front offices with families, enables coordination with first responders, and ensures accurate location information during emergency calls. Because they are expected to work without fail, they are easy to take for granted.
That reality shaped how we approached modernizing our voice environment. We understood that any disruption, even temporary, could have real consequences for the communities we serve.
Why We Chose to Modernize
Several years ago, our district migrated from traditional telephony to a VoIP platform. Over time, however, it became clear that we needed a more modern solution that could better support the operational and technical needs of our district. We were looking for more than a replacement system. We wanted a platform that could improve visibility, simplify administration, enhance functionality, and reduce costs while providing reliable long-term support.
Selecting the Right Partner
For a district our size, responsive support is essential. My team is small, with just a few people supporting a communication system that serves the entire district. While we bring strong operational experience and work closely with our internal engineering teams, access to external expertise is critical. We ultimately chose UDT Voice because we needed a partner that understood our goals, prioritized customer service, and could respond quickly when support was needed. That partnership proved especially important throughout the migration process.
Improving Functionality and Visibility
Because we had prior experience managing a VoIP system, we approached this migration with a much clearer understanding of what mattered operationally. We evaluated not only cost, but also usability, scalability, administrative efficiency, and feature improvements.
One major improvement was consolidation. Under our previous platform, we had to manage multiple administrative portals due to the size of the district. With the new platform, we now operate through a single portal, significantly improving efficiency and simplifying day-to-day management.
The platform also provides greater visibility into system performance. We can now remotely identify registered phones, monitor line status, detect devices placed in “Do Not Disturb,” and troubleshoot issues far more efficiently than before.
Equally important were the emergency communication features. For example, when a 911 call is placed from a school building, automated notification emails immediately identify the location, allowing us to coordinate more quickly with local authorities when needed.
Reducing Costs While Improving Service
Budget considerations also played a significant role in our decision-making process. Like many districts, we continue to face financial pressures while expected to do more with limited resources. Our transition allowed us to reduce operational costs while simultaneously improving service and functionality. Those savings can be reinvested into additional technology initiatives that support our staff and students.
Planning and Executing the Migration
Large-scale VoIP migrations can understandably make districts cautious. We viewed the project as an opportunity not just to replace technology, but to improve our overall environment. We understood the challenges we had encountered during our first VoIP transition and used those lessons to build a more strategic migration plan.
Communication was central to the plan. Each school functions as its own community and building leaders are focused on protecting students and staff. They need clear, timely updates on what is changing, when work will occur, who will be onsite, and what to expect.
Before every site cutover, we emailed each school a migration schedule, expected changes, voicemail updates, and user instructions. We also distributed getting-started guides for staff ahead of each transition. To minimize disruption, we collaborated closely with our partner to maintain familiar phone layouts and workflows wherever possible. The more intuitive the experience feels for users, the smoother the transition becomes in practice.
Our migration strategy was deliberate and staged to minimize disruption. At each site, we initially migrated a single phone connected to the main line while keeping the remaining phones on the legacy platform. This allowed incoming calls to continue uninterrupted while we validated performance through testing. Once successful, we transitioned the remaining phones.
Scheduling was another critical factor. We carefully planned around holidays, testing windows, and instructional priorities to minimize operational impact. We also organized deployments regionally to reduce “windshield” time and leveraged call forwarding on critical numbers ahead of port dates to avoid unnecessary pressure during cutovers. Additionally, our vendor partner completed extensive preparation behind the scene to expedite the migration process.
As a result, we successfully migrated 260 sites in under five months — despite a two-week winter break, Thanksgiving week, and eight snow days during the project timeline!
Lessons for Other Districts
For districts considering a voice migration, several lessons stand out:
- Choose a partner that understands K–12 environments and prioritizes responsiveness
- Communicate early and often with school leaders and staff
- Plan carefully around the academic calendar and remain flexible
- Treat migration as an opportunity to improve, not replicate, your current system
- Prioritize familiarity for users to support adoption and reduce disruption
I am incredibly proud of what our team accomplished throughout this transition. I am grateful to Dr. Andrew Zuckerman, PGCPS Chief Information Officer, and Senthil Parameswaran, PGCPS Director of Technology Operations, for their confidence in our team and support throughout this modernization effort.
We approached this transition with a clear understanding of what was at stake and a
commitment to building a more reliable, responsive and sustainable communications
foundation for the future.
