Existing small school is building an addition for some classrooms. The existing school has Cat 5e data cables to each classroom. The new addition will have cat 6 cables. There will be a new equipment room about 200 feet from the old one, with a fiber cable connecting the switches.

I would like to use a gigabit switch with fiber modules. Most of the switches that are in a reasonable budget price are 10/100 switches with 2-gigabit ports (for the fiber module, I think). I don't have a lot of technical specs from the school, but it seems to me the 10/100 ports would be sufficient. Or would it be prudent to go with a $$ 24 port gig switch?

Also, in the addition, there will be about 35 drops, each with two cat 6 cables. 70 ports on the patch panel. What sort of "port fill" should I figure? Do I need 70 switch ports available? Or would 24 or 48 work?

I know all of this really depends on the customer's budget and their needs. I'm looking for some sort of "typical" configuration (if there is such a thing as typical).

Thank you.
Jim