Big Boost Coming for Olympia's Internet Access
Federal Recovery Funds Awarded
There is an ever increasing need for schools to provide greater access to the Internet and to the World Wide Web because so many educational resources (articles, images, videos, etc.) are found there. Rural districts like Olympia are challenged because greater access, or bandwidth, is difficult to get and expensive if you can get it.
As a participant in the Illinois Broadband Opportunity Partnership – East Central Illinois
(IBOP-EC) the Olympia School District now stands to get a boost through the recent awarding of federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds to that partnership. In August Governor Pat Quinn announced more than $106 million in ARRA funds to Illinois and the IBOP-EC partnership will receive nearly $62 million of those dollars to provide ultra high-speed Internet access in 55 counties. It will also create more than 160 jobs and connect about 400 community institutions.
Now that the award has been made a variety of tasks need to be completed over the next three years. These include laying miles of fiber optic cable to deliver the broadband connectivity to participating communities and organizations. One Olympia community also joined the partnership: fiber optic cable will follow Interstate-55 south from Bloomington and come into Atlanta. Olympia South Elementary School will be the connection point for the district and from there the greater bandwidth will be shared across the Olympia network to all Olympia schools. Soon Olympia students and teachers will find new opportunities for learning opening up as low-cost, high-speed Internet access grows in central Illinois.
