COEUR d'ALENE - A Post Falls education technology firm was one of the unsuccessful bidders for a controversial multi-year contract to provide Wi-Fi service to every public high school in Idaho.

Ednetics' proposal, one of nine submitted to the state in June, was passed over, and the contract was awarded to Education Networks of America, a Tennessee company.

The Coeur d'Alene School District announced Monday that it will enter into its own contract with Ednetics, rather than opt in to the state's contract with ENA. Ednetics' per school cost to complete the work in Coeur d'Alene is $5,666, significantly less than the $23,000 per school it could cost under the ENA contract.

Shawn Swanby, president and founder of Ednetics, told The Press Tuesday that his team does not anticipate that all school districts will sign on to the state's wireless plan, so Ednetics structured its proposal based on the possibility of a partial opt-in.

"With half the schools participating, our contract would have been half the price of ENA's," Swanby said.

The Tennessee company's contract calls for 100 percent payment regardless of the number of schools that opt in.

There were key aspects of the state's request for proposals that Swanby said his team disagreed.

Under the state's contract, ENA will own the wireless infrastructure in the schools it serves, and provide managed wireless service.

"Some things do need to be owned by the district or the state," Swanby said.

For example, he said, data cabling is a 20- to- 30-year investment.

"The way this was structured, it creates this huge barrier for anyone to ever take over the contract. Key infrastructure pieces can't be changed," Swanby said. "It pretty much locks in one provider."

Ednetics employs 70 people, and if they had won the state contract, it would have added another 10 jobs in Post Falls.

The company performs a significant amount of technology work for school districts throughout the Northwest. Last year, Ednetics provided services to 80 percent of the school districts in North Idaho, 70 percent in eastern Washington and 40 percent in western Washington.

"We believe in technology in the schools, and we believe in managed services, to some extent," Swanby said.

He said systems need to be designed in a way that encourages competition, and said his team advocated for a multiple-vendor award of the state contract "instead of creating a state-run monopoly."

Legislators have been critical of Idaho Schools Chief Tom Luna and the Wi-Fi contract because it potentially provides funding of up to $33 million over a 15-year period to an out-of-state vendor, without prior legislative approval.

Sen. Steve Vick, R-Dalton Gardens, who sits on the Legislature's Joint Finance Appropriations Committee, said he's troubled by the length of the contract.

"When we enter into contracts that go beyond an elected official's term, that concerns me," Vick said.

Vick said he did not vote in favor of the education budget that includes the $2.25 million for technology, funds that will cover the first year of the ENA contract.

"I thought there were too many restrictions in it. I had hoped to be able to send more of the money with less strings attached, so the school districts had more flexibility," Vick said.