The Houston Independent School District could receive close to $90 million in technology funding after settling a lawsuit with the Federal Communications Commission.

The funding could be leveraged through the federal E-Rate program, which allows public schools, nonprofit private schools and libraries to get cut-rate telecommunications services.

HISD's E-Rate funding was frozen in 2006 after three former school district workers were accused of accepting meals and other gifts from E-Rate vendors. The three workers have since been fired, a district spokesman said Monday.

Superintendent Terry Grier signed an $850,000 settlement with the FCC this month. Part of the settlement includes the hiring of an E-Rate compliance officer; the district hired Richard Patton on Feb. 11.

"HISD has shown incredible commitment and teamwork in order to restore this funding which is so very important for our students," Patton said in a press statement. "As part of that effort, the district has strengthened its gift policies to the point that any employee who deals with an E-Rate vendor can’t accept so much as a McDonald’s hamburger.”

Grier and the HISD school board recently made it a priority to restore the E-Rate funding by expediting the settlement process.  During the investigation HISD did not upgrade any technology infrastructure at existing schools in the district. 

Schools spokesman Norm Uhl said new schools in the district were the exception.  "When new schools were being built in that time period, the technology infrastructure was added according to the most recent standards," Uhl said.

Also reporting:
Houston Chronicle