El Paso schools' switch to remote learning to fight coronavirus could cost of up to $5M

El Paso school districts' coronavirus shopping lists have included necessities such as WiFi hotspots, iPads, pencils, crayons and even trash bags to help carry activity packets.

Those are a few of the things districts scrambled to purchase in recent days as they suddenly shifted from in-person to remote instruction to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Campuses are closed indefinitely to students after city and county officials issued a stay-at-home order that went into effect Wednesday. Schools, however, can continue operating "for purposes of facilitating distance learning," and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath has told districts they must provide some form of instruction to receive state funds.

To make this possible, local school boards have approved purchases worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, and in some cases millions, to ensure students can engage in learning from home, whether that's filling out paper packets, completing online assignments or tuning in to a virtual classroom.

Trustees for the county’s largest district, El Paso ISD, gave the green light March 24 for a $4.6 million purchase of approximately 8,200 iPads. The devices will be given to third and fifth graders, while elementary students without a laptop or tablet at home received repurposed iPads from classrooms.

EPISD already provides MacBook Airs to middle and high school students.

“We want to make sure we can get at least one device in every household so that students can participate in the distance learning opportunities that we will be offering,” Chief Information Officer Alice Ramos said.

Starting Monday, that learning will primarily happen through Schoology, an online platform where students will access assignments and communicate with teachers. To support this, trustees approved a $192,000 purchase of about 1,300 mobile Wi-Fi hotspots so students can have internet access at home.

Internet gap prompts purchase of thousands of hotspots

Wi-Fi hotspots have been a hot commodity, so much so "all wireless carriers are struggling to keep up with demand," Ramos said. Districts are projecting up to a two to three week wait to receive orders.

A quarter of El Paso County households do not have broadband internet, 2018 American Community Survey estimates show. About 15% don't have a desktop or laptop computer.

Clint ISD, which already provides its approximately 11,000 students with a Chromebook, bought 5,000 hotspots. That cost $960,000.

Socorro ISD spent $172,000 to purchase 1,000 hotspots. It is repurposing classroom and office computers for students and has prepared instructional packets for students currently without internet or a digital device.

More:Here's where families can pick up free meals from March 23-April 3 during coronavirus school closures

Tornillo ISD trustees approved buying 500 hotspots, which cost the district about $140,000 for one year of data. That purchase will ensure every household within the rural 1,000-student district has internet access, said Superintendent Rosy Vega-Barrio.

"Even though Spectrum is providing internet, Tornillo can't access that since it's an unincorporated area (of the county) and fiber doesn't come out here," Vega-Barrio said of TISD's inability to take advantage of Charter Communications' free broadband internet offer for students during school closures.

The TISD school board also gave the OK to buy 190 laptops for eleventh and twelfth graders for a total $88,000. That purchase ensured every TISD student will have a device.

Until the laptops and hotspots come in, TISD distributed learning packets to students, which included a syllabus, learning materials and worksheets, and also books, crayons, pencils, scissors and glue-sticks for younger grades. To hold the packets together, the district purchased heavy-duty black trash bags.

"I wanted there to be no excuse for our kids not to be able to do something," Vega-Barrio said of the decision to purchase basic supplies, something her district was able to do given its small size.

The learning packets cover nine weeks of learning, because when TISD staff assembled them over spring break they had no idea how long the closures would last. Nearly two weeks later, they, like educators nationwide, still don't know.

"We're not going to sugarcoat this," Vega-Barrio said of distance learning. "We are going to keep the same expectation that these kids will master the same standards while they're at home."

Remote education, in whatever form it takes, is about "how are we closing the gaps, not widening the gaps," said Lucia Borrego, SISD chief academic officer.

Districts hope Texas will reimburse COVID-19 costs

While many purchases have been covered by revenue in districts' general operating funds, or even from student travel money budgeted for this year that can no longer be used, administrators hope the state will help offset some of the costs.

The Texas Education Agency has told districts while it doesn't know what type of extra expenditures related to COVID-19 will be reimbursed, "it does seem likely that some form of reimbursement could become available," according to guidance it provided. The agency has urged districts to document all expenditures "should they become eligible for reimbursement from either federal or state funds."

Administrators have created spreadsheets exclusively for this purpose, which grow by the week.

In addition to technology, entries include masks and gloves worn by cafeteria workers prepping and handing out student meals and cleaning supplies for disinfecting campuses and buses. Clint ISD spent more than $90,000 on these items in the past two weeks.

EPISD found itself having to place a rush order on bulk envelopes to mail report cards, which it otherwise hands out sans envelope directly to students or during parent-teacher conferences.

Other costs include time-and-a-half pay for hourly employees deemed essential who are asked to work during the closure, like maintenance and operations, security and food service staff, which is "definitely an expense we were not expecting this year and we didn't allocate (funds) for," Vega-Barrio said.

"There's a lot of expenses that are going to be incurred that we don't fully understand yet," EPISD spokeswoman Melissa Martinez said.

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Molly Smith may be reached at 915-546-6413; mksmith@elpasotimes.com; @smithmollyk on Twitter.