Snake River and other rural Idaho high schools would suffer adverse consequences should the Legislature turn off the spigot that allows Internet broadband to flow into classrooms.

At issue is the broadband service provided through the Idaho Education Network, or IEN. Steve Schellenberg, Snake River High’s technical representative, said there is a possibility that some Idaho high school seniors taking dual-credit high school and college-level credit courses that IEN provides may not graduate.

The Legislature has until early next month to decide the fate of the broadband network.

“IEN has removed the barriers of financial burden and much of the paperwork associated with acquiring bandwidth on our own,” Schellenberg said. “Will Snake River have to shut its doors if the IEN goes dark? No. Of course not. But you have to understand, the most important thing IEN has done for education in Idaho is leveling the field for education for all Idaho students to take remote classes otherwise not offered, participate in virtual field trips to anywhere, to take dual-credit courses to earn not just high school credits, but also get a jump start on college credits — all this and more regardless of geographical location or economic conditions.”

At least four other high schools in southeastern Idaho the Journal has contacted within the past week would be affected but not as much as Snake River should they lose state-funded Internet broadband if the Legislature doesn’t act.

The other districts were American Falls, Marsh Valley and  Malad — and an online charter school, Idaho Distance Education Academy in Pocatello. All said their schools would be at least temporarily affected, while sympathizing with rural Idaho school districts even more remote than theirs, particularly those in northern Idaho that would lose broadband service entirely if the plug is pulled on IEN.

State legislators had until a Feb. 22 deadline to decide if they should use taxpayer money to pay the remaining tab for IEN, but that deadline is now extended until March 8. The state stopped paying Education Networks of America, or ENA, which uses Centurylink as its primary subcontractor for broadband service, for the IEN contract in November after Fourth District Judge Patrick Owen ruled that the ENA contract to install broadband equipment was illegal because of violations of state law that occurred during the bidding process.

The judge clarified his ruling on Wednesday, declaring the $60 million contract void.

“Before IEN, connecting to the Internet was difficult to obtain physically for many districts due to geographical locations and often, too, because only one vendor was available to provide Internet to schools,” said Schellenberg, whose high school has just 550 students with a districtwide student population of 1,700. “That vendor could, and would, make it very expensive for schools.”

And the cost of no IEN —  which charges high schools nothing for its service — to the Snake River School District would be staggering, according to Schellenberg.

“Five years ago, Qwest (now Centurylink) charged us $9,969 … for a single T-1 copper connection to the Internet,” he said. “That was a 1.4 meg (megabyte) connection to service the entire district for all Internet connectivity. If we were to directly translate that speed and at that cost to what IEN is providing us today, at 80 megs, it would cost upwards of half a million dollars each year.”

Camille Wells, IEN’s content and communications director in Boise, provided  a list 89 school districts across the state with high schools that were said to be wholly dependent on the IEN for all broadband connectivity.

Yet at least five school districts on the list — Pocatello-Chubbuck, Idaho Distance Education Academy, American Falls and Marsh Valley — said they would continue to have broadband service at their high schools if IEN ceases to exist. The reason for the discrepancy, Wells said, was because her organization’s list was compiled a year ago in February 2014 and had not been updated. Many schools, sensing problems with IEN because of the lawsuit, opted to switch their broadband connection to other providers.

Among other southeast Idaho school districts on the list of 89 Wells provided are Aberdeen, Shelley and Soda Springs.

According to an Associated Press report, Owen’s decision not only applies to broadband services but also all additional work done for state agencies the Administration Department had approved using the same contract’s purchase orders. The judge wrote that at least $3.6 million had been given to the vendors for non-IEN services.

Before that, AP reported that former state Sen. John Goedde, on behalf of the governor, told legislative budget writers Thursday that the state has received an ultimatum from ENA and Centurylink and IEN’s other broadband service providers stating that unless they begin receiving payments for services, Idaho’s program will go dark.

More than 200 of Idaho’s public high schools are part of IEN. The program has set up schools with video teleconference equipment, which allows teachers to offer classes to students across the state and increase the amount of dual-credit classes students can take to help prepare for college.

Idaho Distance Education Academy also would be significantly affected by the potential loss of IEN. The school is a Pocatello-based, primarily online, public K-through-12 charter school that teachers students statewide with resource centers in Pocatello, Boise and Post Falls.

“It (losing IEN) would be a severe disruption to us in every way,” said Jason Bransford, the academy’s statewide director. “We have some backup plans, but having to resort to those would be a significant disruption.”

Bransford said a number of his academy’s courses have students take part in classes via live Internet video connections with a brick-and-mortar high school located elsewhere in the state. He mentioned a Spanish course in particular.

“It (IEN) has been such a powerful tool for learning (that) it would be very disheartening to see it go,” he said. “I believe … they (legislators and state officials) will come up with a solution. The bottom line is IEN raised the bar academically, and it would be a shame to lose that.”

Bradford’s sentiments were echoed by Marsh Valley High School  Principal Mike Welch.

“I would hate to see (IEN) broadband disappear,” said. “We do use it extensively in the school.”

Dan Wolfley, American Falls School District’s business manager, said the district is billed about $35,000 annually for its 100 megabytes of broadband service, about half of which is picked up by IEN for the high school. The district also gets E-Rate funding, federal money used by schools and libraries that comes from a tax levied on telephone and cellphone customers that pays for about a third of its broadband cost. E-Rate’s distribution is overseen by the Federal Communications Commission.

Should IEN cease to exist, Wofley said, American Falls would have to fund all of its broadband through E-Rate on its own, which would increase the district’s annual cost for its share of the broadband service to about $6,500.

IEN also had been totally funded by E-Rate, but the FCC cut off the funds last year, again because of the judge’s November ruling. Now the state’s taxpayers might be stuck with the bill should the Legislature give the OK to keep IEN funded.

Malad High School Principal John Cockett said IEN can only give his school 20 megabytes of bandwidth, a lot less than the high school needs. He said the high school and the school district as a whole receive E-Rate funding to help pay for the 100 megabytes of additional bandwidth it requires.

Cockett said his school district pays nothing for the 20 megabytes IEN provides the high school but is charged $800 a month for the additional bandwidth it gets through a subsidiary of Syringa. He added that E-Rate reimburses the district about 70 percent of its cost for the 100 megabytes of Syringa-provided bandwidth.

As for the fate of IEN, Goedde is working for Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter’s office to find a solution to keep the broadband program running. He said they are proposing to fix the broadband mess with two budget requests.

The first would be a $1.6 million supplemental bill that would cover the costs of the service until the end of June. Language would be included in the bill allowing the state to pay the vendors. The language is needed because state law prohibits public agencies from using tax dollars to fund illegal contracts.

The second budget request would be for $10.6 million to fund a one-year “bridge contract” that would continue the same broadband service until the Administration Department finalizes a long-term contract.

The vendors say the state should pay them back $4.2 million for the past four months.

Meanwhile, Snake River and other rural high schools wait and worry.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.