The fiber optic sharing project between the City of Peoria (“City”) and the Peoria Unified School District (“PUSD”) began to take shape in 2006 when the City and PUSD began exploring options for collaborating on technology. In 2005, PUSD allocated $8 million to construct a fiber network to connect all PUSD schools together. However, it was realized that the funding available would likely not be sufficient to support the entire initiative. In 2006 it was identified that the opportunity existed to leverage each entities’ infrastructure and funding to benefit both. The shared fiber optic cabling project would make available the City’s existing fiber optic conduit in exchange for PUSD installing new fiber optic cable. This cable would connect PUSD schools as well make fiber cable available for the City to connect City facilities via the fiber network.

This case study was submitted to the Alliance for Innovation for consideration at the 2010 Transforming Local Government conference.