The Twin Rivers R-X school district is looking at ways to expand both internet connectivity and computers available to students.
The district is in the process of installing 67 internet access points around the district that would improve internet connection and extend it into areas that don’t currently have a connection.
Manda Hequembourg, technology coordinator for the district, said she’s purchased the access points and is working on configuring them with the hope that she’ll have them installed before testing starts.
Some of these, she said, will be able to reach into the parking lots and ballfields.
The goal is that if a student needs to get on the internet for homework or other school-related topics, but doesn’t have a connection at home, they can get it done on campus, but not in the buildings.
On the topic of internet, the district is currently paying two providers, Hequembourg said, and each covers different buildings within the district.
However, administration is working on consolidating that into one provider.
Hequembourg said that move will require the district to purchase some equipment, which she said would amount to between $500 and $1,500.
Along with concerns over internet connectivity for students, the district is able to participate in the T-Mobile Project 10 Million initiative.
Under this, the district would receive up to 150 internet hotspots that can be sent home with students. That 150 can be spread out over five years, Hequembourg said.
The hotspots are at no cost to the district and if it stops with the program, it would keep them, she explained.
T-Mobile is offering three plans in terms of how much internet each hotspot gets. The first, which school board members favored, is free for 100 gigabytes of internet a year. There are also plans for $12 or $15 for additional gigs.
“We’re not looking at purchasing anything,” she said. “We’re not looking at adding a bill or anything. We just thought it seems like such a great thing. If they’re going to give us these devices, and let the student have 100 gigs of data to do their work at home, why wouldn’t we? Especially in the event of a shutdown or something like that.”
Hequembourg said the district would be able to control what devices connect to the hotspot and restrict what websites the device can go to.
If the student goes over the allotted internet usage, the device would shut off. The district would also be able to go or down in the list of plans on a month-to-month basis for instance if students need to go to remote learning and would be using the hotspot regularly for Zoom classes.
That can also be based on each device. For instance, if the district sends one home with a student who is home bound, that specific device could be at a higher plan than the other devices.
In terms of which students would get it, Hequembourg said, it comes down to asking families whether they have internet at home, but beyond that she isn’t sure what it would look like.
If a device breaks, it isn’t at cost to the district, that hotspot just wouldn’t be usable anymore.
These hotspots, Hequembourg said, normally costs $150-$200.
School board members approved of the program at the free plan.
Hequembourg said she would also like to see the district get on a rotation buying new PC computers for classrooms.
“We have never had one of these as long as I’ve been here and that’s 13 or 14,” she said. “I think I have purchased computers three times.”
Most of the PCs within the district, she said, are ones she’s built over the years through donated parts and purchased hard drives.
What that purchase rotation would be, Hequembourg said, she isn’t sure but suggested buying five to 10 a year across the district.
“I think it kind of depends on how much computers are at that point in time,” she said.
A computer lasts normally five to 10 years, she said, and the district doesn’t have very many compared to the number of Chromebooks it owns.
She said the district doesn’t need monitors, keyboards or mice for the computers, just the tower itself.
Hequembourg said she’d like to see the school messenger system get used more.
The system will do mass calls to parents if school needs to release early. However, she said, there’s more it can do.
“I know a lot of teachers use Remind and like GroupMe and things like that, but school messenger also teachers can use that instead and it automatically takes their roster from the classroom and their parents and they can just send straight from there instead of having the parents, add themselves to Remind because they’re automatically on the school messenger,” she said.
Principals could also use to it automatically post an announcement to social media when an all call is sent out to parents.