The Co-op School

The Co-op School was founded in 2003 by a group of parents looking for a high-quality and affordable preschool option in their Brooklyn neighborhood. Since then, it has evolved into a fully staffed and licensed independent school that teaches kids from the age of 2 all the way through 8th grade. The Co-op School’s name stems from the fact that students’ families come from a wide range of backgrounds to form a “cooperative” and share responsibility for the development, fundraising, and maintenance of the school. At the heart of The Co-op School is a child-focused approach to learning that values the individuality and unique needs of each student within a diverse classroom environment. As Business Director, Maureen Boucher is responsible for managing the school's finances and overseeing capital projects. In 2018, Boucher began the search for a competent IT partner as the growing school made plans to relocate to a new 33,000 square-foot facility in Brooklyn’s Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood.

While researching IT service providers, Boucher interviewed several firms and asked for proposals. “I remember one company we talked to that specialized in corporate finance,” recalled Boucher. “They were used to working with much larger organizations, and their recommendations just seemed like overkill. Talking with IKON was helpful. Ken and his team had worked with many other schools, and their solution seemed much more fitting to our needs.”

IKON worked closely with The Co-op School on all aspects of their new construction technology planning which included hardwiring the entire building, facilitating high-speed internet access, installing a new phone system, and implementing a digital ID badge system. While undergoing new construction, a major consideration for the school was ensuring there were enough Wi-Fi access points to support students and staff working from laptops throughout the building.

“IKON kept in touch during each stage of implementation to let us know how things were going,” remarked Boucher. “The technicians did a thorough job with troubleshooting and made sure everything was online and working to our satisfaction.”

Boucher also expressed to IKON the school’s desire to keep their IT infrastructure as simple as possible. They felt they were not yet at a scale to have an IT person onsite every day and wanted to retain the ability to handle basic tasks (e.g. rebooting laptops) on their own.

“In the past, our IT was handled almost exclusively by a parent committee,” said Boucher. “Our main goal was to keep our IT infrastructure simple and straightforward so that we didn’t require a lot of ongoing maintenance. IKON helped us design a system that met our technology needs while remaining easy for us to manage internally.”

The Co-op School primarily uses Google Classroom and Chromebooks, eliminating the need to manage a lot of software and hardware configurations. This setup proved extremely useful during the COVID-19 pandemic. While many schools were left scrambling during the shift to remote learning – The Co-op school was able to transition with relative ease because they already had the proper systems in place.

“Whenever I think of IKON, the words ‘Responsive’ and ‘Knowledgeable’ always come to mind,” says Boucher. “They do a phenomenal job planning for and implementing new IT projects as well as maintaining those systems once they’re up and running.”

Boucher went on to add, “Even though we pride ourselves on being self-sufficient, we do rely on IKON quite a bit for technology. If something isn't working and we can’t figure it out, they’ve always got our back and move quickly to send a technician to help us out.”

For more information about The Co-op School, visit: https://thecoopschool.org/.