Columbia Early College High School students now have several options for connecting to off-campus Wi-Fi locations, Dr. Will Hoffman, superintendent, announced April 13.

“Tyrrell County Schools is partnering with local churches to provide a way for students without broadband access to connect to the Internet,” he explained. “Now students won’t have to travel all the way to Columbia in order to submit assignments, check email, or access educational content online.”

This is a pilot program with three community churches currently participating. Soundside Missionary Baptist Church on Sound Side Road and Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church on North Gum Neck Road are hosting Kajeet Wi-Fi access points. These units are cellular devices and, because of monthly data caps, they do not support streaming media such as YouTube video at this time.

The third location is The Assembly of Praise on Travis Road. This location is hosting a TCS-managed access point that supports streaming content.

All connections are filtered for safety and to promote educational content. Access to these Wi-Fi connections is for TCS students and is only available using school-issued Chromebooks and laptops.

Network credentials are already installed on student devices so Wi-Fi passwords are not required in order to connect.

Students who have problems connecting should contact district technology staff for assistance, the superintendent advised.

“We greatly appreciate and value our partners in the faith-based

community for continuing to offer their support to our schools,” Dr. Hoffman said. “We’d also like to thank the NC Department of Public Instruction’s Digital Learning Initiative for providing funding through their 2018 planning grant program.”