Program keeps Spokane students in high-tech loop

Fourth-grader Jonathan Petersen received a free computer Tuesday as part of a new program to put surplus computers in the hands of needy families.

The program through Spokane Public Schools called TEConnections, for Connecting Technology, Education and Community, uses high school students to refurbish school computers scheduled for recycling. The computers are then given to low-income students.

TEConnections distributed its first computers to 15 families on Tuesday at Lewis and Clark High School. Jonathan’s family was one of them.

“It’s going to help him immensely,” Jonathan’s grandmother Colene Petersen said. “He’s always wanted one.”

Jonathan, his grandmother and his mother, Marci Petersen, joined other families for a presentation on how to operate their computers.

Students in Mark Rhoades’ computer repair class at Lewis and Clark led the presentation and refurbished the outdated models as part of the curriculum.

“The repair classes have done all of the work refurbishing these machines,” Rhoades said. “We’ve always taught repair, but we’ve taken it a step further.”

Students worked to build computers with basic operating functions and educational games, Rhoades said. The program gives students hands-on experience with both technology and community involvement, he said.

Lewis and Clark 10th-graders Stephen Thomas and Robert Flottman helped design and present a PowerPoint tutorial introducing the families to their computers.

“It’s kind of nice to give someone a little bit of an early Christmas present,” Thomas said.

TEConnections organizers hope to donate 250 computers to local families in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program by the end of the school year.

Administrators with Spokane Public Schools and the Department of Social and Health Services have been working with Rhoades and Rogers High School teacher Eric Anderson for several months to secure reusable models.

Rogers will host a distribution in February.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program looked for low-income families with students ranging from kindergarten to 12th grade who did not have a working computer in the home.

Eighth-grader Cara Birdsbill became eligible for a computer through the Spokane Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

“I do a lot of essays that I type up,” she said.

Spokane Community College and high school students will work with families during scheduled workshops through the end of the school year. The workshops will familiarize students with Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Windows 98.

SCC student Igor Zhukov, 21, said he could tell how much the computers meant to the families.

“You can see smiles on faces,” he said. “You can see they’re enjoying it.”