This new school year, dozens of Harlandale ISD students will have free Wi-Fi at home thanks to a district program.
“One of the things we set out to do was really break down the school walls and just extend the education to the homes. Provide access where maybe there was none,” Myrna Martinez, director of information services at Harlandale ISD said.
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Dozens of students have received routers that communicate to cell towers placed around the district and provides wireless internet to the home.
“It is filtered access. So, it’s not about Netflix, or anything like that. It’s for student work,” Martinez said.
Fourteen cell towers were installed around the community.
“We are 14 square miles of excellence, as we like to call ourselves. So we have one at about every mile which gives the district about 90 to 95 percent coverage for our families,” Martinez said.
Martinez said the district will be collecting data to find out if students are using the devices and how it is helping.
She said if the Harlandale project has a positive impact, the city may want to expand into other areas.
“We have wonderful programs that our curriculum department has put in, online resources, software programs and such and this just ensures that the kids have access to them when they are at home,” Martinez said.