The federal government has awarded $2 million to the V.I. Education Department to improve telecommunications at territorial schools and school libraries.
The money came from a 1998 Federal Communications Commission fund called the E-Rate Funding Commitment. E-Rate is also funded by telecommunications companies, according to the V.I. Independent.
Clinton Stapleton, state director of Multimedia Technology Services and chairman of the State Multimedia Technology Task Force, explained that the funding is not a direct grant. It is a reimbursement commitment.
E-Rate will refund 88 percent of the cost for infrastructure work done to create and improve communications between schools and to ensure that all schools and school libraries in the territory have Internet access.
Mario Golden, acting Education commissioner, said coming up with the department's 12 percent share shouldn't be a problem.
The State Multimedia Technology Task Force is the agency that applied for the funding. Eligibility was based on the number of students participating in the school lunch program. Stapleton said that figure was about 88 percent in the Virgin Islands.
"We have been increasingly providing additional funds to develop infrastructure for the schools," Stapleton said. "This school year we've already put some monies aside that can be utilized."
Stapleton said the hope was to develop a telecommunications infrastructure for each school library and at least one classroom in every school.
Needs vary from school to school, according to Stapleton. Some schools, such as Bertha C. Boschulte Junior High, are already in the loop. BCB already has a computer lab, classrooms and administrative offices with Internet access.
The funds will be administered by the schools and libraries. They cannot be used for the purchase of computer equipment.
