With help from Sun Corridor Network, Vail School District makes Wi-Fi easier to access across its campuses
It’s a school night in Tucson. A student rides the bus across town for an away basketball game. After warmups, there’s a break before tipoff — just enough time to work on an English essay due this week.
She opens her laptop and looks for Wi-Fi, but instead hits a wall: There’s a guest portal that requires account creation and the access code never arrives. By the time she gets home after the game, it’s late — and the essay waits.
Now imagine the same scenario, but a different outcome.
She opens her laptop and connects instantly, with no guest account or extra steps because the district uses eduroam — a shared Wi-Fi network that follows students and staff across participating campuses.
That’s the vision that prompted Mark Breen, Chief Technology Officer for Vail School District in Tucson, to work with Sun Corridor Network (SCN) and bring better connectivity to his schools.
How it happened: A new kind of connection
It started in 2017 after a conversation with colleague Jeff Billings, the IT director of Paradise Valley Unified School District. Billings shared how Sun Corridor Network isn’t a typical internet service provider, but Arizona’s nonprofit research and education network — designed for schools and universities, with low latency and Internet2 access.
Vail School District soon added SCN as a provider. Later, at a conference, Breen connected with SCN Executive Director Derek Masseth, where they talked about eduroam and how one state, Nebraska, had expanded it across nearly all K–12 districts. Kids could use the Wi-Fi seamlessly across campuses.
“The kids get on a bus for a game and wherever they go, they’re just connecting automatically,” Breen said. “I thought, wow — this is so cool.”
So, Breen worked with SCN to get eduroam set up for his district. With a vision of future possibilities, Breen took the full leap and made eduroam their primary network, crediting his hard-working and talented technology team in Vail for making this vision a reality.
“We decided to go all in,” Breen said. “That way, staff and students don’t have to remember how to log in. It’s just automatic.”
Seeing it in action
Explaining eduroam is one thing, but experiencing it is another, Breen says.
This became evident when one of his assistant superintendents attended a meeting at the Mayo Clinic’s ASU campus in Phoenix. At the beginning of the meeting, everyone was trying to log into the wifi. Some were having trouble.
“Everyone was trying to get on the guest network and waiting for codes,” Breen said. “The person next to the assistant superintendent asked how he got online so fast. He said, ‘I don’t know, I just opened my laptop. I’ve got this eduroam thing — it just works.’”
Moments like that are exactly what Breen hopes will convince more districts to join.
“Once you’ve experienced it, you get it,” he said. “It’s that simple.”
Spreading the word
For Vail School District, eduroam removes friction from learning. It helps students focus on their work instead of hunting down passwords and login codes, and teachers can collaborate more easily.
Seeing how effective it is, Breen is already reaching out to colleagues about bringing eduroam to public libraries — and envisions a future where students can log on effortlessly at the airport, community centers, and every school in between.
He’s also quick to emphasize that the technical side shouldn’t scare anyone off.
“If you just want to add eduroam to your network, it’s really easy,” Breen explained. “Sun Corridor is awesome. Derek, Gabriel, Laura — everyone on that team is just so easy to work with. Even if you’re not an SCN district, they’ll help you get on eduroam. They’re trying to grow the network for everyone.”
As eduroam scales, every new district, library, or public building that joins will make it more valuable for everyone. Breen is excited to see that happen.
“We’re still in the early days for Arizona,” Breen said. “But the more of us who jump on eduroam, the more it benefits all of us.”
Masseth said Vail’s implementation shows how small steps can lead to greater outcomes.
“Vail’s work with eduroam is a great example of what happens when we all pull in the same direction,” Masseth said. “When schools and networks work together like this, everyone’s job gets a little easier. This is what our network was built for.”