RUMFORD – SAD 43 will soon get more telephone extensions in the district’s five schools, thanks to the most recent round of E-rate funding.

The district received just over $17,816 at the end of July.

Wally Devoe, technology coordinator for the district, said he wasn’t sure how much the district has gotten in the past from the program, but said it is many thousands of dollars.

E-rate funding is a federal program that requires telephone subscribers to pay a small monthly fee that is used to upgrade library and school telecommunications and Internet access throughout the country.

Devoe said up to 32 more telephone extensions will be added to the district. He said some of the funding will also be used to add new telephone and Internet equipment in the schools that make it possible for additional extensions.

The E-rate program began about six years ago. Since then, Devoe said virtually every classroom has gotten telephone access. Before the E-rate program, telephone access was generally restricted to school offices.

He said the program also provides the largest portion of funding for Internet access in the schools.

Since the beginning of the program in 1998, Maine schools and libraries have received more than $27 million in E-rate funds, according to a press release issued by U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

The latest round of E-rate funding brought nearly $276,500 into the state.