"We asked them if they could do a T-junction and come around to our school with the idea of hooking up and they did that quite happily, but then we investigated costs."
Just to connect to the service was between $8000 and $9000 and monthly operational costs were in the same bracket.
"Being a country school on a small budget, we just couldn't do it," he said.
Mr Lewis' recent investigations with service providers about the newest, government-subsidised, roll-out had left him with no answers on updated pricing plans.
Wholesalers, service providers and the Ministry of Education were unable to confirm pricing to Hawke's Bay Today.
Robin Kelly, a spokesman for Chorus, one of the Crown's four partners in the roll-out, said the wholesale price was set as part of Chorus' contract with Crown Fibre Holdings.
"It is set at a lower cost than other wholesale services and will be the same for rural and urban schools," he said
Paul Clearwater, spokesman for Crown Fibre Holdings which sets the wholesale price of the service, said pricing was still being negotiated.
"By and large the cost would be very reasonable, on par or close to what [schools] already pay," he said.
"Hawke's Bay is soon, but still a few months away, and I think we'll see people being offered pretty good deals. I think schools could manage."
He said introductory offers could be in the "low hundreds of dollars a month", and would be minimal compared to what homes and businesses would pay.
"The pricing will be very similar to the current, and the service means schools can get rid of all of the phone lines so they can actually have savings as well.
"They can connect for a fraction of the price of residential or business. Schools are going to come off pretty well I think."
Westshore School was one of those named as first in line for the roll-out, and principal Martin Madden said he would not upgrade if it was too costly.
His school was in the process of installing upgraded equipment and wireless internet, and was more than happy with that.
"Whether we actually use the ultra-fast will depend on the cost of actually running it. What we have got at the moment works well, we never have an issue of slow access."