LETTER: Framingham Schools Wi-Fi Decision 'Ridiculous'

The decision to cut off public wireless access for students across the Framingham Public School District is ridiculous and needs to be revisited immediately.

The Central Administration and the Framingham School Committee are responsible for this problem. They need to work quickly to find a better solution. When Dunkin’ Donuts can provide public wireless, why can’t our public schools?

Here are some of my issues with this decision:

1. No notice was given. Access was cut off one week prior to midterm exams, putting students who use the Google drive to create study notes or to get materials in a bad position.

Parents were not notified of technology changes at all, beyond a posting on the Framingham Public Schools website, and teachers found out with little to no time to adjust their plans.

2. This wi-fi access decision is expected to last two months, and will impact low-income students the most. They are students, who may not have devices or unlimited data plans to get access to needed materials in school.

3. We don’t have any evidence that the district planned for the new problems this “solution” created. Why not at least set up a few hot spots such as in the library, in the cafeteria, or in the gym?

4. Where is all our technology money being spent?

The town just concluded a five-year $2.5 million investment in technology that was championed when I was on the School Committee. One of the main reasons for doing this was to give all students greater access to the variety of learning tools that are out there today.

Town Meeting just voted to start another multi-year plan with almost $1 million to be spent this year. What are we getting for this investment if we can’t have our students and teachers easily accessing online materials?

5. We are trying to get all of our schools and teachers to use technology, but having unreliable services hurts teacher morale and takes us backwards.

How are Fuller and King supposed to be STEAM schools if they have to worry if whether their lessons will work with the Internet provided?

One would have thought the district would have first invested in an infrastructure to support all of the many devices that could use it before buying all the devices.

6. Last summer, the state sent the district a $1million bonus from “pothole” funds to spend as they saw fit. The town manager, CFO, Finance Committee, and the Framingham Board of Selectmen all recommended and urged the Schools to use those funds on non-recurring expenses, like technology, since these funds were a one one-time
grant with no guarantees for the future.

The Superintendent and School Committee ignored that advice and instead spent every nickel on hiring $1million in new personnel. These positions may be important, but they should have been pushed for during the regular budget process or funded by looking closely at savings that could be gained by trimming other non-classroom positions in central office or by other means.

Investing in technology would have helped solve this problem before it started and set the district up to function well into the future. But again, the Superintendent chose differently, ignoring the possible problems.

This is a failure of leadership, and it is the School Committee’s job to effectively oversee how the district is being led. The administration needs to make changes, and the school committee needs to be more aggressive in making sure that this happens.

Ricky Finlay

Framingham

Editor’s Note: Finlay is a candidate for the Framingham School Committee. The Town election is March 29.