Offering hotspots

FORT RECOVERY — Free wifi hotspots are now available to Fort Recovery students.

Fort Recovery Local Schools purchased six hotspots this year for students who may not otherwise have access to internet while away from school. Students can check out the devices from the elementary and middle school library after their parents sign a form.

Every year the school receives federal funding for supplies aimed at the homeless or low income student population, said elementary school principal Kelli Thobe. Officials have purchased everything from backpacks to hygiene products for students in need.

“We’ve got to the point we’ve accumulated enough of that stuff that we need to spend the money elsewhere,” Thobe explained.

Middle school and high school students are now allowed to take their devices home for school work. Thobe and others realized earlier this year that while students can now have their devices away from school, they may not have a signal to do their homework.

After Ohio schools closed in March because of coronavirus concerns, Thobe said, the it became essential for students to have home access to their online courses. Some families utilized wifi at Fort Recovery Public Library to do their remote learning work.

In order to help those families, school officials decided to purchase devices with the low income student funding for the 2020-2021 year.

“We don’t want to be delivering paper packets all the time,” Thobe said, adding that having internet access at home can help lower income children have equal learning opportunities.

“We don’t want to create that learning divide or make that gap any bigger,” she added. “We’re just trying to level the playing field and give these students the same opportunities.”

The hotspots, which cost about $1,150 total with the annual subscription included, are Alcatel LINKZONE 2 models providing up to four gigs of usable data. Students can check out a device for about two weeks at a time.

As many as 16 devices can connect at one time to each unit, although parents are required to sign a form that requests they use the device for educational purposes only. Parents should also be warned the hotspots don’t have firewalls or safety screening like the school internet, Thobe said.

For now, the hotspots are available at the elementary and middle school library, but that may change depending on the need. Currently any student — regardless of economic status — can check out a hotspot after they bring in a parent’s signature.

If in-person classes were suspended again, Thobe noted, school administrators would likely need to prioritize the low-income families for hotspot access.

School librarian Pam Fullenkamp has yet to have any students check out a hotspot. She has tested one of the devices from her own home, though, and she said she was pleased with its performance.

“It’s so versatile. You can connect anywhere, in the car, or at your house,” she said. “So (students) could go to grandma’s house and have hotspots — no excuses to not get their homework done, I guess.”