School system to loan computers to students

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The Franklin County School System is moving ahead with a plan to try to help as many students as it can participate in online distance learning. The plan includes loaning computers to students who have access to the internet but no way to access it.

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  • The Franklin County School System is moving ahead with a plan to try to help as many students as it can participate in online distance learning.
    The Franklin County School System is moving ahead with a plan to try to help as many students as it can participate in online distance learning.
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CARNESVILLE – The Franklin County School System is moving ahead with a plan to try to help as many students as it can participate in online distance learning.

The plan includes loaning computers to students who have access to the internet but no way to access it.

During the Franklin County Board of Education’s regular meeting Tuesday, which was streamed on Facebook Live, Assistant Superintendent Chuck Colquitt and Technology Director Andrew Fowler gave an update on the system’s instructional plan.

Colquitt informed the board that parents could drop off work packets picked up before spring break at schools on April 21 and pick up work packets for the remainder of the school year. 

These packets don’t have to be dropped off to schools until May 14.

Online distance learning will also end on May 14.

Fowler told the board that schools tried to contact parents and students to determine which students had internet access and access to adequate devices to participate in online distance learning.

“We wanted to know if students had access to a computer they could use, if they had to share a device or if the computer they were using was a parents’ work computer,” Fowler said. “For distance learning, students really need something other than a smartphone because they need to be able to type.”

From there, criteria were set and a list of students was created.

“We are planning on loaning out Chromebooks to students who met the criteria by having internet access, but not equipment,” Fowler said. “We have created a contract that states our expectations for what the Chromebooks should be used for and how they should be handled.”

The system is also using a free trial of the program Go Guardian, which will allow the system to filter what websites can be visited and what is seen on the Chromebooks.

Fowler also announced that the school system is receiving 16 hotspots from the state.

Before their arrival, the system is working on a plan for how they can be best used to benefit students and also placing a filter on them so the service provided by the hotspots can only visit system-approved websites.