Buhler Schools brings esports to its students

Oct. 14—BUHLER — Buhler'sBoard of Education Monday night approved the school's new esports package.

This will allow students to become a part of a team, similar to a sports team, but they will play video games.

The board also learned placing a solar panel on one of the district's buildings would be more expensive than thought and how much a cloud server would cost. They heard about overdose testing on an as-needed basis for the district and saw a mock-up for their new several-year facility plan packet.

At Buhler, there's a director of innovation — Kyle McClure. One of his projects was to get more kids involved. In March of 2020, he came up with an esports team. He realized that this sport would allow students who usually are not a part of a team the opportunity to compete.

"Students not currently interested in other activities would have a place to belong," McClure said. "It creates school pride by representing Buhler."

The team plays Rocket League, Smash Brothers, League of Legends, Splatoon, FIFA Soccer and Madden NFL on computers. They compete against other high schools, virtually.

"We established right at the beginning we're going to treat this like a sport," he said. "I expect (them) to be here as a team or to work as a team."

McClure told the students they were going to support each other, explaining to them this is a group activity even though they are competing one-on-one against an opponent.

The extra-curricular team meets two to three days a week, using a computer room and school computers. The board approved of the team and designated approximately $4,000 to go toward game registration, coaching and jerseys.

The board tabled a longer discussion on solar energy for another time. Because of increasing costs of materials, the cost of solar panels are increasing. The board received an estimate of about $350,000 per building to be fitted with solar. A business partnership would have to help cover the costs. Union Valley Elementary was tentatively viewed as the best place to fit the panels.

Laura Reed, who works in IT for Buhler, gave a report on changing over to the Cloud. One of the district's servers, which were purchased in 2014 and not upgradable, failed.

Reed researched Amazon, Azure, DOS and Peak UpTime for Cloud services. She discovered that Peak UpTime offered the best price. The board asked her to bring in more information on this company.

"I like the idea of having regular updates and staying updated," Reed said.

Buhler administration can now have access to a Narcan nasal spray that can be used in emergency situations for the treatment of opioid-related overdose on school property or at a school sponsored event.

Superintendent Cindy Couchman showed board members a draft of a new facility protocol booklet. She said they are working on a five year plan that actually looks like a 16 year plan. This will help the district understand their costs and capital outlays.

"It's sort of like what are our next Steps," she said.

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