Leveraging connectivity

Association of California School Administrators

Applying available technology to increase internet access for all students

By Leopoldo Perez | March | April 2023

The Shasta Union High School District in Shasta County encompasses a large geographical area of approximately 1,800 square miles. The district serves 4,200 students in the city of Redding and numerous smaller communities, many of which have significant geographical barriers to adequate internet access and connectivity. Additionally, most of the students that live in these areas also qualify for Title 1 services and support.

While mobile hot spots are more than adequate to provide high-speed internet access in the city and the surrounding areas with strong cellular networks, our more mountainous regions are different. As the district shifted to 1-1 with Chromebooks, driven by the pandemic school shutdowns, it became evident that we needed to find new ways to help bridge the internet connectivity gap in the areas we had control over. Before the pandemic, wi-fi access points were mainly in classrooms and other interior spaces.

During the first full school year of the pandemic, we expanded the number of outdoor learning spaces and started to build up the infrastructure needed to support learning outside of classrooms. By fall 2022, we had added enough exterior access points on all of our school sites that every student and staff member had access to the internet in all outdoor areas, including athletic facilities.

The silver lining of the pandemic has been increased internet access for our students. Today it is common to see students completing assignments in all spaces on our school sites. This has been beneficial for students that arrive early or stay late. With the new late start time required for high school students, we are seeing a large number of students arriving on campus well before the start of classes. Our enhanced internet access has allowed these students to utilize this time in a more productive manner.

Some of our students ride the bus for up to 90 minutes one way each day. For these students, having a three-hour internet connectivity gap while on the bus presents some significant equity issues. We are addressing this by installing wi-fi on all of our school buses and helping to squeeze the connectivity gap to the extent possible. While we cannot assure that our students will have connectivity for the full three hours they are on the bus, we can, to the extent that the bus route has cell service, provide our students the option to have a learning opportunity on their long commute to and from school.

While our approach to addressing the connectivity issue may not be unique, we believe the resources provided by the state and federal government have allowed us to close an equity gap that otherwise may have taken much longer to improve.

With the new late start time required for high school students, we are seeing a large number of students arriving on campus well before the start of classes. Our enhanced internet access has allowed these students to utilize this time in a more productive manner.

Internet connectivity has always been a concern, but it only took center stage once we were forced to go all in with distance learning. As we start to normalize from the pandemic, we must continue providing services essential to student learning and achievement. A big part of that is internet access and connectivity. Our district’s solutions continue to be short-term while the state’s communications infrastructure catches up with the needs of our rural communities.

Leopoldo Perez is the Associate Superintendent of Instructional Services in the Shasta Union High School District.