About 25% to 30% of students in the Moniteau School District lack the necessary internet connectivity to participate in a flexible instruction day, according to Dassa McKinney Elementary School principal Kevin Boariu.

Armstrong Telecommunications’ upcoming broadband expansion into Moniteau and Slippery Rock Area school districts, which is expected to start sometime after 2025, could change that.

“I think the first hope, obviously, is that we have a lot of families that have poor connectivity in this area, and this would certainly make it easier for us to have flexible instructional days to have kids have access to some of the computer support programs that we offer here at the school,” Boariu said.

Last month, the Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority announced Armstrong would receive about $12.47 million in Broadband Infrastructure Program grants for two projects to expand broadband access in the northern part of Butler County.

Armstrong will match the grant up to 25%, raising the total to $16.63 million.

With a student population of 1,400, according to the district’s website, 25% to 30% of students in the Moniteau district are struggling with internet access amounts to between 350 and 420 affected students.

Susan Miller, assistant superintendent at Slippery Rock Area School District, estimated about 10% to 18% of students in her district do not have reliable internet, which could be due to a number of factors, she said, including financial constraints, lack of connectivity in the area or the parents’ choice to not have internet at home.

According to its website, Slippery Rock serves about 1,940 students, meaning somewhere between 194 and 350 students struggle with internet at home.

These figures are estimates.

Alix Greenawalt, director of technology at Moniteau School District, said he hopes network expansion will help provide families with high speed internet, equipping students to be able to better complete homework and group projects.

“With today's technology, it's always a challenge for families that either are not able to get reliable internet or not able to get internet at all, especially during COVID,” Greenawalt said. “We had grant money available to provide funding for mobile hot spots. But that funding has gone down. So some families are using their own hot spots or using neighbors’ internet and things like that. It's tough. So we've actually been pushing for Armstrong to build out (broadband internet).”

In the event of a flexible instruction day, also known as a “Remote Learning Day” in other school districts, classes are conducted online.

When a flexible instruction day is put in place because of extreme weather, there is always the chance some students would not be able to participate due to a power or internet outage, Boariu said.

Still, expanding internet access would allow for more students to participate in flexible instructional days, interact with classmates on assignments and conduct research for school projects.

The expanded coverage would also give teachers the opportunity to have students view additional resources and enrichment material, Boariu said.

Echoing Boariu’s point, Miller said network expansion would help support students who would otherwise not be able to access extra resources at home.

“(It would help) with research, group projects and for younger students, with extra practice,” Miller said.

“We live in a very tech-based society,” she said. “The more technology they have access to, the better.”

In large part, Slippery Rock has tried to negate the challenges associated with a portion of students lacking reliable internet, she said. Miller said students can bring Chromebooks home with activities and assignments already downloaded on them. Teachers still use workbooks and “lots of paper,” she said.

The challenge remains for students who would want to work collaboratively with their classmates outside of school.

“(Network expansion) means more access and further opportunities for our students, which we support,” Miller said.

Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche said the rural landscape has remained a roadblock to rolling out broadband internet in the northern part of the county.

“In the rural nick of that area, it’s difficult, number one, to deliver efficient internet where you have geography like that,” she said. “The second thing is that the reality is that when you talk about running many miles of fiber cables across short distances, you don’t have the potential on (financial) return.”

“If you’re a private company running cables in a space where there’s not a lot of density in housing or businesses, your potential on return is pretty limited,” she said.

Gaps in internet connectivity were further brought to light during the pandemic, Osche said.

“In some parts of the north, kids were doing (schoolwork) from home,” she said. “(School districts) were trying to deliver home-based schooling where there was no internet coverage.”

Lack of reliable internet access put students at risk of falling behind in their education. Districts got assistance from different companies, including Armstrong, to provide hot spots for students, Osche said.

Making internet access available to students was the reason that Armstrong approached network expansion in the northern part of the county by school district, she said.

“They took the approach of, let’s look at school districts and make sure that at the very least, we have internet driven to … homes with students,” she said.

According to the state Broadband Development Authority, over 276,000 households, businesses, schools and libraries in Pennsylvania don’t have access to broadband.

Osche said there will always be some criticism of Armstrong’s plan for broadband internet expansion, including the 3G speed.

“I think that the most important thing is getting service that is ample for today and for the landscape you see in that part of the county,” she said. “You see in that part of the county, for instance how many businesses, how many residents (there are). The measure of gigabytes is based on where the greatest demand is going to be, and my suspicion is that (the greatest demand) is in residential areas.”

“You can always upgrade (internet coverage) later,” she said. “For them to start out here and understand the demand they’re going to have, how many people will sign on (broadband internet) and actually adopt it — that’s going to be key to this whole thing. This just gets us started. It’s just the beginning.”

The Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority’s Broadband Infrastructure Grants are just one way the state aims to tackle lack of broadband across Pennsylvania.

On Tuesday, May 14, Pennsylvania Broadband Development Authority executive director Brandon Carson announced approval of the second preliminary phase of the Commonwealth’s Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment grant, a federal grant program spanning $1.16 billion authorized by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The Broadband Development Authority now has one year to submit a final proposal. Once the final proposal is approved by the federal Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration, the Broadband Development Authority will begin a four-year implementation process to connect communities across the Commonwealth, according to the organization.

Osche said the plan to expand connectivity in Butler County is in line with the Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission’s connectivity road map, which identifies underserved areas and equity issues around broadband access.

“Maybe broadband internet is available, but folks can’t afford to connect,” she said. “The road map also looks at challenges in getting people to adopt broadband.”

“If people can’t adopt broadband from an equity standpoint, again, it’s a lost investment,” Osche said.

When asked about potential challenges that could arise in Armstrong’s expansion, Osche said efforts should be continued to make sure funding continues for folks who can’t afford access.

“It’s important that assistance is still available and out there,” she said.