LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and forced schools and classrooms across Kentucky and the U.S. to close, Jefferson County Public Schools sent thousands of Chromebooks and T-Mobile data hotspots home with students in hopes of keeping them connected with their studies.
JCPS doled out 10,000 data hotspots for the launch of their updated nontraditional instruction plan at the start of the 2020-21 school year, far fewer than the 30,000 Chromebooks available to families by request at the time.
Now, Kentucky’s largest school district is working to ensure every student has access to the internet anywhere they go by replenishing their stock of Chromebooks with devices already equipped with cellular technology. Students “can have their homework done on the bus ride on the way home,” JCPS Chief Information Officer Kermit Belcher said.
“It doesn’t matter what school you attend or where you live,” Belcher said in an interview. “You have the same opportunity and access as other kids, so that really gives me the most satisfaction in being able to pull this off.”
JCPS has about 50,000 new Chromebooks outfitted with cellular access over the past two school years as part of its regular refresh cycle of devices, Belcher said. Another 25,000 such Chromebooks will be bought in the upcoming school year, and by 2023-24, every student will have access to devices that are able to connect to the internet through T-Mobile data plans.
JCPS spends $400 each on new Chromebooks, which are on four-year replacement cycles, Belcher said. The data plan costs JCPS $72 per student per year, and the district gets about 110,000 gigabytes of data through its agreement with T-Mobile.
“We won’t even come close to that,” Belcher said.
The district used federal COVID-19 pandemic relief money to purchase the new technology initially, and Belcher said JCPS would be able to continue buying the new Chromebooks with its own funding.
“It’s sustainable, and what we wanted is a plan that lasts long beyond any of us, whether it’s a board member, superintendent or CIO change,” Belcher said. “We wanted a system in place, not just something built upon federal funding.”
New Chromebooks are already in the hands of about half of the district’s students.
Tavarius Jones, a rising freshman at W.E.B DuBois Academy, has used his new Chromebook mostly on projects in his English class.
“We create poems, we do essays, and we cite sources in paragraphs,” he said.
He also uses it to connect with tutors offered through the district’s partnership with FEV Tutoring, an online tutoring service.
“They make you highlight the text, they make you work on your own, and if you need help, you can ask for advice,” Tavarius said. “They don’t just give you the answer.”
Mariana Gilbert, who will be in third grade at Kennedy Montessori next year, also uses her new Chromebook to get help from tutors, mostly for math.
She likes the device much more than the tablet she once had through JCPS.
“You can type real easy,” Mariana said. “You can do stuff that you didn’t get to do on your tablet.”
Mariana Gilbert , Tavarius Jones and Nasir Bussell play the educational version of the video game Minecraft on their new Chromebooks provided by Jefferson County Public Schools on July 11, 2022. The district is buying new Chromebooks already outfitted with cellular technology to ensure students have access whenever and wherever they need for school.
While Tavarius and Mariana like to use their Chromebooks to watch their favorite shows on platforms like YouTube, Belcher said the district uses content filtering systems to ensure students only access appropriate websites. The Chromebooks also require JCPS credentials to login, and the district can lock devices down remotely if needed, he said.
Feedback from JCPS schools so far has “been fantastic,” Belcher said. Other school districts have been in touch with JCPS about their connectivity plan, and T-Mobile has said JCPS “is leading the way” in ensuring students can get online wherever and whenever for their schoolwork, he said.
“I think (the pandemic) helped people realize the need for devices that we’ve been trying to get to, and now that we’re able to do that, I think it’s changed the trajectory for JCPS students forever,” Belcher said.
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