The Georgia Department of Education (GADOE) recently awarded Carroll County School System with a grant to assist the district with providing WIFI transmitters on buses, school sites, and other community access points to enhance Internet accessibility in the rural areas of Carroll County.
“We appreciate that our local and state partners are supporting our efforts to offer online learning opportunities for all students,” stated Scott Cowart, Superintendent of Carroll County School System. “During our Distance Learning efforts this past spring, we recognized that many of the families we serve do not have adequate Internet access, and our team has worked diligently to explore options and find ways to offer remote solutions.”
The K-12 Connectivity Grant will offer a quick and cost efficient option to provide Internet access for students who may not otherwise have the option for digital learning. Carroll County School System will receive 63 WIFI transmitters that will be installed on buses and at school or community sites to serve as WIFI “Hot Spots” throughout the county. The Transportation and Information Technology departments will work together to complete the installation of the WIFI devices as quickly as possible.
The Georgia K-12 Connectivity Grant is not the only effort currently underway to enhance broadband access in the community. Daniel Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce and Carroll Tomorrow added, “The CARES Act along with the work of community business partners, Carroll EMC and SyncGlobal Telecom, will provide citizens in the West Georgia area enhanced access to the Internet for work, education, leisure, tele-medicine, and more. We are excited about this major initiative that will offer our community Internet accessibility with world class service and connectivity.”
The GADOE has allocated $3 million of the CARES Act Elementary and Secondary Education resources to provide funding for the K-12 Connectivity Grants. In addition to providing the equipment, the GADOE will also cover the expense of data charges and content filtering services for the entire 2020-21 school year.
