Bringing internet to pupils’ homes
Project aims to provide free wireless access to poorest neighborhoods
SAN JOSE — At least two Saturdays each month, a few hundred students crowd into Overfelt High School’s library and classrooms to research papers, catch up on homework and collaborate on projects.
It’s not that the students love spending weekends at school. Some are getting extra credit or making up work, but many are drawn by the school’s internet access — something that an estimated 400 students, nearly a third of Overfelt’s student body, don’t have at home.
Soon, that problem could disappear. In one of the nation’s first efforts at creating a school-district-wide network that reaches into students’ homes, the East Side Union High School District and city of San Jose are teaming up to provide free wireless internet access in some of the city’s poorest neighborhoods. First up is James Lick High, followed by Overfelt High.
The school district is funding the city’s installation, operation and maintenance of East Side’s wireless network, as well as an extension of the city’s Wickedly Fast Wi-Fi network, for five years with $2.7 million from voter-approved school bond funds.
“It’s cool,” Overfelt sophomore Bernadette Mendoza, 14, said about the plan.
“My friend doesn’t have Wi-Fi,” Bernadette said, “so she comes over to my house to do her homework.”
The city of San Jose already provides free Wi-Fi downtown and at Mineta International Airport. The East Side project is tackling the so-called homework gap, part of the city’s efforts to bring the digital age to low-in-
come residents, Deputy City Manager Julie Edmonds Mares said.
Randy Phelps, East Side Union’s chief technology officer, said the James Lick attendance area should be linked to the internet by next July.
“No one’s really tried this before,” Phelps said, although many districts have expressed interest.
One Colorado school district is struggling with hardwiring student homes, he said, while Coachella in Riverside County has put internet transmitters on buses, which are then parked in residential neighborhoods.
The stumbling blocks are technical, practical and financial. East Side has been working on the Wi-Fi project for several years and finally has resolved the mechanics, identified partners and lined up initial funding. With more financing, the network will eventually be extended to East Side’s Yerba Buena High attendance area, Phelps said.
Students will access the network through schoolissued passcodes. While high-speed internet access and wireless service have become must-haves in the digital age, steep monthly charges shut out the valley’s poorer residents and their children.
Access to the internet “for some people is still a luxury,” Overfelt Principal Vito Chiala said.
In San Jose’s poorest households, a single internet-connected computer may be in demand by multiple family members, Chiala noted, or home internet access may come at a cost of other essentials.
The city-East Side deal is part of East Side Union’s ambitious investment in technology. The district already has deployed 24,000 Google Chromebooks in classrooms and libraries and has blanket Wi-Fi on-campus coverage at its 11 largest schools.
Overfelt, where 86 percent of students qualify for subsidized lunches, augmented all that last year by winning a GoFundMe competition that brought in $46,000 for 190 more Chromebooks, which students may check out and take home.
Without those, many students have to do their homework at school or are forced to rely on smartphones.
To do schoolwork, “I ask my cousin if I can borrow her computer,” said senior Julissa Aguirre, 17, who has no Wi-Fi at home. To connect, Julissa turns her cellphone into a Wi-Fi “hot spot.” She tries to finish as much work as she can in class.
Having no computer can be a hardship. “It’s kind of hard to type an essay on your phone,” Julissa said.
For students, internet access is essential. “Most of our work is online. If you don’t have Wi-Fi at home, how are you going to finish it?” said Overfelt junior Fredic Delrio, 16. And though many Overfelt families can access the internet, their connections often aren’t speedy. “It’s a lot slower,” Fredic said.
East Side recognizes that its Wi-Fi will reach only about 75 percent of households in its target areas. For the rest, students will be provided an electronic brick that will transmit AT&T wireless signals. And some homes, Phelps said, may need boosters to capture WiFi signals.
Technology’s rapidly changing landscape has challenged schools, even those in Silicon Valley, to keep up. Only a few years ago, schools were building and equipping computer labs that classes visited. Now mobile devices migrate to the students.
Instruction has evolved to harness technology’s powers. Overfelt English teacher Douglas Day, for example, has a cart full of Chromebooks in his classroom. “The kids absolutely depend on them,” he said.
They’re essential for Google Classroom, the Web-based software suite that Day uses for posting assignments, monitoring student progress, providing feedback and issuing grades.
There is one small issue: When technology hiccups, that day’s lesson plan can sometimes go awry.
Said Day: “Once you begin to count on the internet, when it goes out, it’s difficult.”