Eric-John Szczepaniak
  • Home
  • News

100% of Kenowa Hills kids go home to wifi access

3/23/2020

 
Kenowa Hills Public Schools has partnered with Sprint to cover every single student who did not previously have internet access. This proactive contract was made possible due to the early efforts of Superintendent Jerry Hopkins and school board trustee Eric-John Szczepaniak.

After learning about the "homework gap" at a school board conference, Szczepaniak shared the importance of tackling this crisis in our community before the outbreak of COVID-19. Of course, this pandemic has only exacerbated the digital divide. Superintendent Hopkins surveyed the community to find that 6% of KH students lacked adequate internet access.

Once COVID-19 forced the closure of all schools, Hopkins worked to get every student access immediately. Even though Kenowa Hills has been a 1-to-1 district for several years, where every child receives a device, we know that our learners and educators need access to connect with one another during these times. At the forefront of Kenowa Hills' continuation of learning plan is connection to students. Internet access is essential to meet this end.

While Kenowa Hills sits in a largely metropolitan Kent County, many districts across the state and nation face an uphill, sometimes impossible, battle in getting students connected. Local governments, states and the federal government should work to establish internet access as a right to position all of our kids to fully participate in our global economy and life.

Comments are closed.

    Author

    Eric-John Szczepaniak is a passionate public servant focused on building agency and ownership in communities. Visit ericjohn.org for more!

    Archives

    December 2022
    December 2021
    August 2021
    August 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • News