Decorah School District will spend $42,000 to make sure all students have Internet access this spring

The Decorah School Board Wednesday evening voted unanimously to spend $42,431 to hire Communications Engineering Company (CEC) to install equipment which would create Wi-Fi access points at all five school district buildings.  The system would guarantee access to on-line classes and materials this spring.

91 students from 59 families in the school district are without access to the Internet at home, while others have spotty access.  Usage of the Wi-Fi points would be restricted to students using the Decorah School District-issued tablets and laptops they use for classes.

School district officials say they plan to submit a reimbursement request to the Iowa Department of Education, hoping that federal FEMA funds earmarked for Iowa will pay for the project.

While the Wi-Fi points will be put up in order to serve students this spring, Tecnology Director Kurt DeVote remarked Wednesday evening, "the hardware will be ours and the system will be ours in the future."