Cape School District works to keep non-wired students connected

In a wired world, with widespread access to cyberspace often taken for granted, it may be a bit of a shock to realize not everybody can get to the internet.

In the Cape Girardeau School District, school administrators estimate as many as 180 of its students can’t get online at home.

Since the shift to remote learning in March, school districts across America have scrambled to provide laptops and tablets to students.

The Cape Girardeau district provides its student body, numbering nearly 4,100 pupils, with a Chromebook to homework and access the internet. So long as a student has Wi-Fi at home, such a device is adequate to handle keeping a student connected to homework.

At Monday’s school board meeting, Jamie Russell, a district tech instructional specialist, told superintendent Neil Glass and the seven board members how students who can’t get to the internet at home are being kept connected.

“This is the most challenging time I’ve had in 15 years of education,” Russell said. “(The pandemic) is beyond anything I’ve ever encountered.”

Russell is acutely aware of the increasing number of reported COVID-19 cases in Cape Girardeau County.

“Having to think about an option to move to totally virtual learning, if necessary in the future, is something I never would have thought possible before,” he said.

At the moment, in-person learning is still the norm with the Cape Girardeau schools reporting 30% participation in their Tigers@Home remote learning program.

A Tigers@Home student must have Wi-Fi access to be in the program.

The gap for the district are those students who show up for classroom instruction but can’t get to the internet at the family residence.

“One of the things we’re doing for them is record their teachers in the classroom, download the sessions to a USB drive and send all of it home with the student who can then access the teaching offline,” Russell said.

Russell said the district is prepared to go old school, too.

“If we have to, we’ll send home teaching assignments on paper, plus teachers and teacher’s aides will be available to call a student to help with assignments,” he said.

Cape Girardeau schools are gearing up for a worst case coronavirus scenario.

“If we ever have to go 100% virtual learning, we may need to create hotspots for students to get Wi-Fi,” Russell said, with the district actively looking at grants and the financial help of community organizations for any needed funding.

Russell, a New Madrid County Central graduate, taught in the Kennett and Nell Holcomb school district before coming to the Cape Girardeau School District eight years ago.

“In this (educational) climate, we have to keep thinking outside the box to optimize student learning,” he said.