Director Joe Clark, of Twin Transit, talks about broadband and satellite connectivity Tuesday afternoon at the Chehalis Twin Transit office.
A wifi hotspot sits in the office of Twin Transit Director Joe Clark on Tuesday.
As Lewis County explores ways to get all students connected to reliable internet in the time of distance learning, a recurring question arises: Who is responsible for funding the efforts to get students connected so they may receive the public education the state promises?
Local school districts do not have the answer, but they are using what funding they do have to connect their students — federal and county CARES Act money and their existing technology budgets. Districts can purchase hotspots to get students connected but cannot sustain the monthly internet service costs in the long term.
A team of local organizations has created the Lewis County High-Speed Education Network to help districts get disadvantaged students connected. So far, the network has connected approximately 1,431 students in the county to internet service. After local school districts purchase the necessary equipment and entered into agreements with internet service providers, they can file for reimbursement with the network.
“The success of this endeavor is essential. We cannot allow COVID-19 to cost our students their education. We must ensure that educational and social service resources traditionally delivered through schools remain available to all. Our most at-risk children need us. We will not leave them behind,” stated United Way of Lewis County in a press release.
The network has been funded by $150,000 of county-allocated coronavirus relief funds and $50,000 from United Way’s COVID-19 fund.
Partners involved in the network include Lewis County school districts, United Way of Lewis County, the Lewis County Board of Commissioners, Lewis County PUD, community liaison Joe Clark, Phil Crocker of Teater-Crocker Inc. and internet service providers, such as Verizon and U.S. Cellular.
Clark said that he helped create the group because he saw the need within the community and wanted to help.
“I think more attention needs to be paid to these students and the struggles they are facing right now. It is important to me that these kids have internet access,” Clark said.
Phil Crocker is the project manager for the High-Speed Education Network and has worked to gather data from Lewis County school districts. He has found that approximately 1,750 students were without sufficient internet access in the county.
Hotspots, using cellular service, have emerged as the fastest route to get most students connected but it doesn’t work in all cases.
“Part of the reason hotspots are being used is just the speed of deployability. Are they the best solution? Probably not. Some districts have purchased service on a month-to-month basis, hoping to refine their solutions and others have signed multi-year contracts,” Crocker explained.
The Centralia School District is utilizing hotspots using U.S. Cellular service and cradle points. The cellular service provider of the hotspots differs from district to district. In some locations, AT&T may offer the fastest speed at the lowest cost but just a few miles down the road, T-mobile, U.S. Cellular or Verizon might be the service that delivers the fastest or only connection.
“We just have to drive around with all of these hotspots on the dash and pull into driveways to do speed tests to see which service works best at each address,” Crocker said.
Although the network has connected almost 1,500 students to internet service, the ongoing monthly costs of the hotspots can not be sustained by its current funds, Crocker said. On average the hotspots cost $40 a month and with about 1,750 students without sufficient internet — it comes to about $840,000 a year.
In an effort to continue funding the ongoing costs of the internet service for students, United Way, acting as the LCHSEN’s fiscal agent, has applied for $25,000 in CARES Act funding from both the city of Centralia and Chehalis. Whether or not the money will be awarded should be decided before the end of the month.
When Crocker was asked if he thinks school districts could fund internet connection for all disadvantaged students on their own he said “no” but gave more context.
“It’s a loaded question. Could every district spend all of their CARES money on it? Probably but then they wouldn’t be able to buy temperature monitors or plexiglass or pay for extra staff when kids start coming back… so it’s a catch-22,” he said.
Clark said that he would like to continue the work of the LCHSEN and continue to help students have access to the internet at home as education and technology become more and more intertwined.
“As tragic as this pandemic has been, 210,000 people have died, there are lessons we have learned here and it would be shameful if we didn’t apply those lessons to help families and students with their education in future,” said Clark.
