Internet Cafes

Warren County School District welcomed students who do not have adequate access to internet at home to return to their school buildings to do their full-virtual schooling.

Those students worked in ‘internet cafes’ in the schools.

“The student attends their usual building and spends their day in an online learning lab which is a large space in the building where students can spread out and work online,” Director of Administrative Support Services Gary Weber said. “We have staff monitoring this area throughout the day.”

“Teachers who normally would have a study hall or other duty are supervising the students, along with some of our paraprofessionals,” Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Eric Mineweaser said.

With many people working from home, already scarce broadband access in some parts of the county, and new thousands more users online every day, school officials expected there to be students who would not have sufficient access to internet at home.

A survey conducted before the start of the school year indicated that as many as one in five students might not have sufficient internet access to handle full-virtual schooling. That would be about 800 students district-wide.

When it approved closing down in-person education and going full-virtual, the school board left open the possibility of allowing students into the school buildings where they could access the internet.

“At this time the expectation is that any student that can’t get internet at home is attending school,” Weber said.

The number of students in the buildings fell far short of 800. There were about 70 students in the internet cafes on Monday.

In some cases, the internet cafes are actually internet cafeterias.

“The schools are using the gymnasium and cafeteria spaces for the students to complete their online work,” Mineweaser said. “Social distancing is in effect within the buildings.”

Those students were not the only people in the buildings.

Many teachers are working out of their classrooms.

Some special education programs are operating in the schools.

And most Warren County Career Center students are able to attend that building.

The school board and administration discussed the career center during last week’s school board meeting. They were concerned about the loss of hands-on time in some of the shops. They also said many of the programs were well-suited to distancing. The decision was made to allow in-person attendance.

“The WCCC has several programs up and running,” Mineweaser said. “The teachers and administration are calling home if students are absent and unaccounted for. Overall, the programs are running well.”

“Health and Medical, Auto Tech, Auto Body and Marketing are all virtual,” he said. “They’re running live, daily Zoom lessons.”

Families who do not want their students to attend the career center in-person have that choice. “There is an option for those that do not want to attend,” Weber said. “In most cases there is a virtual option.”

The district is providing transportation for those students who are still attending.

“Transportation is going well,” Mineweaser said. Transportation Manager “Mr. (Mike) Kiehl is updating the list daily and communicating with families and the bus contractors, as needed. We are not running all the buses but running enough vans and buses to get the students to and from school safely.”