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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Boise

For one small, poor eastern Idaho school district, internet has ‘changed ed in tremendous way’

Alan Dunn, superintendent of the Sugar-Salem School District, is giving the first of four school district presentations to lawmakers as part of today’s legislative hearing on school broadband service. Dunn said his is a small district, with 1,550 students, in a rural farming community north of Rexburg; the county has little or no business or tourism and has the second-lowest property value in the state. Yet its students rank in the top quartile in academics.

The district makes extensive use of broadband, Dunn said; it’s had 300 students take classes over the IEN in the past two years. Its high school students all are assigned a computer; almost all research is done online; and the district has developed its own enhanced digital textbooks. Teachers sometimes teach remotely via Skype. And the district’s phones all are VOIP, voice over internet protocol, so they require broadband access to function. Student testing all is done online, as is the district’s state reporting.

“Use of the internet has changed the education we provide for our students in a tremendous way,” Dunn told lawmakers, noting that the district has “four sets of encyclopedias – they are never pulled off the shelves, they are never looked at.” Students can “get it quicker online,” he said.

“Our district is poor,” Dunn told the legislators. “Without your help, we would be unable to have district broadband access.”



Betsy Z. Russell
Betsy Z. Russell joined The Spokesman-Review in 1991. She currently is a reporter in the Boise Bureau covering Idaho state government and politics, and other news from Idaho's state capital.

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