PORT ANGELES – The Port Angeles School District is turning to buses as a way to help with internet connections for its students.
The district has outfitted two buses with Wi-Fi transmitters and receivers. The plan is to park the buses in areas the district has identified as having poor internet connectivity or limited Wi-Fi services.
Superintendent Marty Brewer says its one way the district is trying to bridge the equity gap for students that now need internet connections to do schooling now that school buildings are closed due to the coronavirus
“They have a receiver and then they have an antenna, and the antenna sticks out on top of the bus and puts out a Wi-Fi wave to anybody within 400 feet of the bus.”
Brewer says there are areas in the western and eastern most parts of the district where broadband services are limited. He anticipates the buses will start to roll in the coming days and will probably not stay at the same locations.
“Now, the plan is we will develop a schedule based on the need. The bus will be pulled out in the morning, so to speak, and parked in a strategic location for the day and it may or may not be back the next day it might be on a five-day rotation so that once or twice a week the areas of our district that need more access or hot spots. We will be able to hit maybe 10 or 15 locations during the course of a week.”
Brewer says because they’re district-controlled connections, they’ll be able to put restrictions on content.
The district has a map of Wi-Fi hot spots in the area on its website and plans to include the bus locations on that map when they roll.