Broadband grant means more opportunity for students, Tracy supt. says
MARSHALL — It was big news, said Tracy Area Schools Superintendent Chad Anderson. The announcement that the Tracy Area School District will receive a state broadband grant was something that would “really open up” opportunities for students.
Last week, it was announced that the Tracy Area School District is being awarded a $30,620 grant to expand broadband Internet access for students. Tracy was one of only a dozen districts statewide to receive the broadband grants.
“It’s exciting,” Anderson said of the award Monday. “It was something I knew when I was filling out the grant application, that there would be a lot of schools in competition for it.”
Anderson said the grant Tracy received has two parts. One part will fund mobile Wi-Fi devices that students can check out and use at home. The other will fund Wi-Fi hot spots on Tracy school buses, so students can do school work while commuting.
The Tracy district has been expanding its use of technology over the past several years, developing its broadband infrastructure, and starting a one-to-one technology program for students in grades 7-12.
“This was the next logical step,” Anderson said of Tracy’s broadband grant application.
Even though it’s becoming more common for area school districts to use online technology, not all students have the same level of access to the Internet.
“I have talked to some families who don’t get Internet access unless they have Dish or some kind of satellite network,” Anderson said.
It’s also important to consider the amount of time students spend on the school bus, Anderson said. The Tracy Area district extends about 26 miles west of the city of Tracy, which means some students can spend an hour or more riding the bus to and from school every day. A long commute without wireless access eats into the time students have to do homework. With 250 Tracy area students signed up to ride the school bus, it’s an important problem to address, Anderson said.
The 83 percent of Tracy students who are involved in extracurricular activities run into the same problem of finding time to use the Internet for school work, he said.
For students in activities, “Our longest ride is from Tracy to Ortonville,” Anderson said. That’s a trip of about 100 miles, one-way.
With the help of the broadband grant, Anderson said, the Tracy district is working to make sure all students have the same opportunities as students living in town. So far, wireless hot spots have been equipped on four school buses serving Tracy students.
“The first ones are on the longest after-school routes and on our activity buses,” he said.