The Renaissance Charter Schools

The Renaissance Charter Schools was founded on the conviction that a change in the destiny of a single individual can lead to a change in the destiny of a community, nation, and ultimately humankind. The PK-12 school’s mission is to foster educated, responsible, and humanistic young leaders who will create the renaissance of New York. Renaissance is recognized as one of the city and state’s most successful charter schools and prides itself on maintaining a strong governance structure and demonstrating fiscal soundness and sustainability. Technology plays a key role in many of the school’s accomplishments. Since 2017, Assistant Director and Assistant Principal Dan Fanelli has entrusted the school’s technology needs to IKON Business Group.

“What set IKON apart from other IT providers was their commitment to onsite support,” said Fanelli. “If our Internet goes down, we can’t function. Other companies said they’d try to be there by the end of the day, whereas IKON guaranteed us that they’d have someone in the building within 4 hours or less.”

Over the years, IKON has become integral to the school’s success – supporting their entire network across two campuses and handling everything technology-related, including Internet access, computers, laptops, printers, copiers, and more. Teachers and support staff especially appreciate IKON’s seamless ticketing process that ensures all their issues get handled in a timely and efficient manner.

“I wear a lot of hats, and somewhere along the line, one of those hats became technology,” remarked Fanelli. “If someone had a technology question, I’d google the answer. When we hired IKON, I felt like a weight was lifted. Now I tell our staff to, ‘Call or Email IKON’, and the issues are resolved. I am focused on what really matters: the day-to-day experiences of our students. IKON simply makes me better at my job.”

While working to set up IT wiring for the school’s second location in Maspeth, Queens, Fanelli thought it was an ideal time to revisit the school’s existing security system to help monitor activity in and around the building.

“Timing is everything when dealing with student and staff safety”, remarked Fanelli. “The faster we can get to the bottom of an incident, the better. But with our old camera system, it often took hours of going through footage to see if an incident was caught – let alone clear enough to be of any use.”

To make matters worse, the cameras they had previously purchased from another vendor were obsolete almost immediately after they were installed. After evaluating the school’s needs, IKON recommended its trusted partner, Verkada – the leader in cloud-managed enterprise building security. Verkada’s all-in-one solution provides Fanelli with a real-time view into his school, and the generous 10-year warranty gives him peace of mind.

“Schools have tight budgets – so we really have to pick and choose where we spend our money,” said Fanelli. “IKON went the extra mile and helped us get the best deal possible on our new security camera system.”

As was the case for many schools, the Covid-19 pandemic presented a particular set of challenges for Renaissance. During the height of the pandemic, one of its schools went fully remote – making it difficult to communicate with students and staff and provide adequate computer support and internet access.

“IKON helped us make sure every kid had a Chromebook and helped us to strategically plan around wireless internet for families,” said Fanelli.

When asked how confident he feels referring IKON to other charter schools, Fanelli added, “IKON is a stress-reliever for me. They’re always proactive, and I can depend on them to tell me what needs to happen in the next 6 months or even further down the line. Everything I’ve asked them to do, they’ve done and more.”