NORTH VERNON — Jennings County School Corp. Superintendent Teresa Brown and her staff have been working to improve internet access for local students.
While JCSC had already integrated traditional learning with aspects of online learning for four years prior to the pandemic, it wasn’t until COVID-19 struck that the corporation realized a significant number of students couldn’t sign-in for online classes.
According to Brown, nearly 34% of JCSC students did not have the ability to connect to the internet when the school was shut down in March.
In response, Brown said the corporation formed the JCSC Broadband Committee to define connectivity problems and come up with solutions.
With the help of JCSC IT Director Josh Taylor, research included surveys to find who had connectivity issues. The team then did a mapping of the entire county to determine where more fiber was needed to expand internet access.
As of Aug. 20, JCSC had 3,450 students enrolled in in-person classes while 533 students were doing online schooling.
With the concern that the pandemic might again force the closing of traditional schooling, Brown, Taylor and the Broadband Committee began an intense study of grants and programs to assist JCSC families improve their home computer access.
“We had already supplied each our students with computer devices so they all had those,” Brown said. “We’ve been doing that for the past four years. What our students lacked was the ability to connect with the internet.”
So Brown and Taylor worked together to apply for a share of the $61 million Governor’s Emergency Education Relief and Economic Relief (GEER) fund provided by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act.
JCSC’s application was approved on Thursday, and it has been awarded $1.6 million to help with the demands for internet learning for both JCSC teachers and students.
The corporation now has an increased financial ability to assist the building of more broadband in the community, but there is a problem in the laying of fiber.
“We have been told it could take four years to lay the fiber we need. We may not have the time to wait for that so we are moving ahead for additional solutions,” Brown said, explaining that Taylor was working on an innovative system that would expand internet connectivity for the entire school system.
In addition to expanding the capability for all students to connect to the internet, the Broadband Committee extended their research to find affordable internet options for families.
As lockdowns continued throughout the summer, it created more economic struggles for local families, which led to more families not being able to afford internet access, Brown said.
One program they discovered was the Comcast Life Line Program, which is designed to help families going through economic hardship gain online access.
The Comcast Internet Essentials Program offers eligible households the opportunity to have online service for only $9.95 a month. To be eligible, a person must live in a Comcast service area and the applicant must not be a current Comcast customer or has not been a Comcast customer in the 90 days previous to the application.
An applicant can qualify for the Comcast Life Line Program if they qualify for any of the following programs: Public Assistance, Medicaid, Public Housing Assistance, SNAP, School Lunch Program, Head Start, TANF, SSI, LIHEAP, WIC, or a VA Pension.
