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Summertime campers often park in the lot outside Newark Street School, sit in their cars and use the building’s free Wi-Fi on their phones.
That’s what staff without home internet could end up doing as the school — part of the Kingdom East Unified Union School District — moves toward remote work amid the coronavirus pandemic, Superintendent Jennifer Botzojorns said.
And it’s a challenge state leaders recognize, too, for students and those who work remotely: The Department of Public Services this month released a map of public Wi-Fi hotspots through the state accessible by parking nearby.
In Northeast Kingdom counties, which have among the worst access to broadband in the state, social distancing and the shift to digital connections will likely look different than elsewhere.
The Kingdom is the most underserved region in the state when it comes to high-speed internet, according to state data from just before the new year.
More than 32% of buildings in Essex County are underserved, the data shows. The figure in Caledonia County is nearly 20%, and almost 14% in Orleans County.
To qualify as broadband, or high-speed internet, a fixed service needs a download speed of 25 megabits per second and an upload speed of 3 megabits per second, the FCC says.
Only 32% of buildings in Essex County are served at that level, according to the latest data test, while Caledonia and Essex both measure around 55%.
Breaking the numbers down by specific location shows entire communities that could face exacerbated hardships as more and more people are encouraged, or forced, to distance themselves from others. No addresses at all in Avery’s Gore or Lewis, in Essex County, are served by internet providers, according to the latest data. In the Caledonia County town of Kirby, almost 70% of homes are underserved.
Compare that to Burlington, where no buildings are underserved.
Families with school-age children and educational staff who lack high-speed internet access may acutely feel the sting in the weeks to come following Gov. Phil Scott’s decision to close schools last week.
“Really, we should be able to have digital learning that is robust and relevant for students,” said John Castle, superintendent of the North Country Supervisory Union. “Right now, that is not the case for all of our students.”
Survey results in his district are still being compiled, but he expects they’ll show “25, 30% of our population that doesn’t have connectivity.”
After Scott’s executive order, both Botzojrns and Castle said schools across their districts saw heavy absences last Monday and Tuesday.
“There are teachers that were literally mailing things,” Castle said, describing efforts to get kids what they needed before operations shut down.
Students who came in Tuesday at the Miller’s Run and Sutton schools were all sent home with backpacks full of books and hard-copy materials, said Botzojorns, in anticipation of problems with digital learning.
Miller’s Run’s boundaries include the town of Sheffield, where as of December 36% of homes were underserved with broadband, according to state data. In Sutton, the figure was 45%.
It’s not only a matter of lacking connectivity: Some families don’t have computers or other technology to access the internet. With some virtual meeting apps, like Zoom, people can call in by phone rather than using a webcam or connecting via internet. That’s how some problems are being mitigated at the Burke Town School, said Botzojorns, where only two people can’t access the call-in feature because of restrictive phone plans.
In both her and Castle’s districts, schools are letting students take home Chromebooks, iPads and Macbooks for their studies.
Castle said North Country may buy more Chromebooks for kids. And Kingdom East officials are looking to buy Wi-Fi hotspot devices from Kajeet — a company focusing on technology to help education — to give to families with inadequate or nonexistent service.Â
Both districts are exploring turning bus drivers into parcel carriers — bringing students new assignments and materials and picking up completed work for teachers. That’d be in addition to food delivery; drivers for North Country plan to deliver daily lunches and breakfasts for the next day to families.
“This hasn’t been done before,” Castle said. “It’s not like we just dusted off an old plan of how we did this two years ago. We’re making it up as we go along.”