Annie Redden picks up her laptop from Pendleton County Schools
By Allie Redden, Student Reporter
From Tuesday, August 11th to Thursday, August 20th students picked up laptops to be used for online learning at their respective schools. School employees have worked diligently to prepare devices for students. Media specialists Amanda King and Tina Record organized the events for their schools. Providing laptops to students is a valuable service so that all students have access to online educational courses amid the pandemic.
Craig Smith, Chief Information Officer for Pendleton County Schools, oversaw the acquisition and distribution of the laptops. According to him, over the past few years all four schools have been purchasing laptops for students to use while in school. During last school year’s NTI, the district worked with building principals to determine the number of additional laptops that would need to be purchased for every student to have one. CARES funds along with school and general funds were used to purchase the remaining number of devices needed so that there was a one-to-one ratio of students to computers.
Smith also discussed the number of laptops the school was able to procure, stating, “The number of devices being provided to students is changing daily. A little more than half of the laptops we ordered last school year have arrived; however, there was an issue with the company making the parts for the devices, so the remaining part of our order has been delayed. As a result, we need any student who has their own device to use it until the order arrives. At this time, we do not know the expected delivery date. Students who marked they needed a device on the survey that was sent out over the summer are getting first-priority to laptops. There have been a large number of parents call the schools to let them know that their child now needs a device so the list gets longer each day. Those students are being put on a waiting list, and our staff has been working tirelessly to go through the list and assign the devices we have.”
Another issue facing the schools as we transition to online learning is internet access. As of 2018, only 72% of youth in Pendleton had access to broadband internet according to CIRCLE. To remedy this issue, the district reached out to United Way to discuss the connectivity issues many families face. Craig Smith elaborated on this, saying, “United Way has partnered with Cincinnati Bell and private donors to help connect our students. R.C Durr agreed to provide $5000 to help with this effort in Pendleton County. The 21st Century Community Learning Center programs at Northern Elementary, Southern Elementary, and Sharp Middle School have also received approval to offer a limited number of hotspots to students who qualify for their program. Additional hotspots could be purchased as monies from CARES funds allows. Any hotspot from the 21st CCLC or purchased with CARES funds will have a filtering agent which will only allow students to access school-approved websites. The district will monitor the usage of all hotspots.”
With these services and commodities being provided, Pendleton County schools students will be well equipped to take on this year. Online learning begins on Monday, August 24.