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The recent closing of school campuses due to the global coronavirus pandemic forced Polk County Schools to quickly offer remote learning opportunities to its students.

Ensuring the availability of electronic devices and internet service for those students, though, presented a variety of challenges to the district – which prompted staff at Facebook’s Forest City Data Center to reach out to Polk County Schools to see if they could help.

After a brief discussion with district administrators, Facebook generously donated $50,000 to help address student connectivity needs. The funding allowed Polk County Schools to purchase additional Chromebooks, internet “hotspots,” and even help with service contracts. This meant that many students who were having to drive to school parking lots or go to other public venues to do their work could now work from home with a reliable device and access.

“At a time when we were scrambling for resources and solutions, Facebook stepped up to help our students and families,” said Polk County Schools Superintendent Aaron Greene.

Polk County Schools will continue to work on increasing student access to devices and internet service to assist with remote learning. Ongoing support from businesses and organizations such as Facebook makes a huge difference.

“We feel so fortunate to have incredible community partners like Facebook and the fine people at the Forest City Data Center,” Greene said. “On behalf of all our students and families, we thank them for their generous support.”

Polkstudents.com