Fairfield school board discusses adding Wi-Fi to buses

FAIRFIELD — The Fairfield Community School District Board of Directors discussed adding Wi-Fi to the district’s buses during their meeting Monday.

The board received a recommendation from transportation director Mark Branch to purchase new routing software through Premier Wireless. According to information supplied to the board by Premier Wireless, having Wi-Fi on buses would allow students to study and complete their assignments during their daily commute, or when they are traveling on the bus for field trips and extracurricular activities. It would also provide Wi-Fi around the bus by using it as a hot spot.

Money for the Wi-Fi installation would come from PPEL and/or SAVE funds.

Board member Mark Porter said he has a friend who is a bus driver in the district. Porter asked his friend if he thought this was a good idea, and the driver said no. Porter said he himself was skeptical of how Wi-Fi on the buses would be used.

Superintendent Laurie Noll, and board members Christi Welsh and Tim Bower, said the Wi-Fi should have the same content filters as the district’s computer, so they did not see why it would be a problem. Technology director John Grunwald told the board that was correct, that the Wi-Fi routers would have the same security features as what exists in the school buildings.

Board members also wondered how well Wi-Fi would work in various parts of the county. Some of them mentioned that the southeast corner of Jefferson County is known for having poor reception. Porter said it would not make sense to spend a lot of money adding Wi-Fi to buses if the Wi-Fi doesn’t work. Noll suggested the district could do a trial run to see how the Wi-Fi works throughout the county.

The board voted to table the motion until they could study the matter further.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com