Fort Thomas Unified Schools is very proud of its accomplishments as the driving force behind the founding of the Graham County Education Consortium (GCEC).

Originally, GCEC members were unable to obtain Internet access because the needed telecommunication services did not exist in their individual communities. As a result, the member schools formed a consortium and built their own wide-area, wireless, and fiber-optic network. 

Our WAN now connects the Graham County School Superintendent's office, 18 schools, one library, and the University of Arizona's Agricultural Experiment Station to each other and to the Internet. We have been successful in obtaining grant funding to provide a private fiber optic and wireless WAN that connects all of us together to share resources like an Internet Service Provider, Distance Learning with Eastern Arizona College, and professional development training provided by EAC and Northern Arizona University.

Graham County Education Consortium has also teamed up with Eastern Arizona College and EdTeching, a group of Northern Arizona University professors, to provide professional development opportunities to all teachers, principals, and administrators in Graham County and Gila County.

EAC provides needed training concerning the use of software and hardware in the classroom. Teachers are trained to use all of the Microsoft software applications, PDAs, scanners, digital cameras, etc., and how to implement their use in the classroom. Edteching has helped the Consortium form a "Community of Leadership" consisting of teachers, principals, and administrators representing each of the member schools. The Edteching professors are teaching the Community of Leaders how to implement the use of technology in the classroom as well as helping them to form a Community of Leadership in their own schools and to exponentially promote the use of technology in the classroom.