On Tuesday, Wake County school administrators asked school board members if there were items they wanted to be added to a list of topics that the district will discuss between October and December. One of school board member Bill Fletcher's suggestions was to explore parking school buses with Wi-Fi routers in poor neighborhoods.
"One of the challenges we have with students is not having Wi-Fi access at home, and across the nation there are some districts who have equipped buses with Wi-Fi in them and parked them in neighborhoods where kids don't have access to Wi-Fi in their houses," Fletcher said. "I'd love to see that on a list for exploration, if not implementation."
Fletcher told Superintendent Jim Merrill he's not sure if the list of 2016-17 second-quarter items was the proper place for his bus idea. Merrill responded that it sounded like something that might be a business case for inclusion in the next school budget.
The Coachella Valley Unified School District in California has gotten national attention for outfitting school buses with Wi-Fi routers and solar panels and parking them overnight in the most underserved communities. CBS News reported in April that eight Wi-Fi buses are now left overnight in various neighborhoods, and Coachella is now turning salvaged cars into even more mobile hotspots.
"I have made the joke that I will put a router on a pigeon if I have to, and fly them around the neighborhood," Coachella Superintendent Darryl Adams told CBS News. "Whatever it takes to get these kids connected, I will do, It is essential to education."
©2016 The News & Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
