Watch, schools launch effort

Watch Communications and Jay School Corporation are now officially working together on the dual track of providing high-speed internet service and improving school security.

Watch and Jay Schools held a launch ceremony for their partnership, with school administrators, Watch officials, students and others gathering to commemorate the moment.

Watch Communications, under parent Benton Ridge Telephone Company, obtained $52.4 million in contracts through the Federal Communications Commission Connect America Fund initiative to build broadband infrastructure in areas that are “unserved and underserved.” Their area covers Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, including portions of Jay County. The company is now required to build the infrastructure over a 10-year period, but Watch has chosen to make Jay County a priority with a goal of completion by mid 2020.

As part of that initiative, Jay School Corporation and Watch Communications have formed a partnership to address internet connectivity for students and school safety. Part of that includes signing a memorandum of understanding that a portion — 5 to 7 percent on a sliding scale based on the customer’s length-of-service commitment — of monthly fees will be donated to the school corporation to support school security. (Customers will also have the option to donate additional funds.)

“I can’t imagine a better scenario where the kids win, the families win, our economic development picture improves and all the services that we hope to provide our community are greatly enhanced,” said Gulley. 

Watch, a sister company of Portland-based Community Fiber Solutions, also plans to guarantee bandwidth for students when they log in from home through the school’s network, meaning they would not be competing for bandwidth with others using the service within the home. 

The company is also working on a subsidy program for low-income families to receive internet services for their school-age children.

Also during Wednesday’s ceremony, Watch presented the school corporation with a $10,000 donation to be used for school security.

Jay County is the pilot school corporation for such a program, which Watch plans to expand throughout its three-state region.

“We are going to take this model and apply it to every single county we service,” said Frank Glaszner, vice president of sales and marketing for Watch.

He said the plan is to follow Jay County with the adjacent counties as it expands the program.

Glaszner said the goal is to begin seeking subscription commitments from local residents within the next 30 days. (As part of its partnership, the school corporation will distribute subscription information to students.) He said the company could then begin building out its network in Jay County in the late spring or early summer.

Gulley touted the partnership as a boon for Jay County in terms of education, school safety and economic development. He noted that having high-speed internet service will be helpful to students and families as the corporation plans to implement e-learning days for the 2019-2020 school year.

“None of this would be possible if we just took a traditional view of how to solve this problem,” said Gulley. “We didn’t.”