Instead of taking kids to field trips, school transportation firm takes internet to kids

JFK Transportation is usually delivering students to campuses and providing the means for them to attend field trips and get to sports games.

But this week it started delivering them technology.

JFK vans equipped with Wi-Fi systems were dispatched to neighborhoods in the Santa Ana Unified School District where students were having difficulty accessing the internet for their distance learning.

  • Pilar Ojeda with JFK Transportation, knocks on doors to ask if families of school-age children need to connect to the internet in Santa Ana Tuesday, September 1, 2020. The company is providing WiFi service through the Santa Ana Unified School District during remote learning. Ashley Sanchez, 13, with her brother Damian, 6, said she was relieved to be getting reliable internet. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Sara Mateos watches with her children, Melissa, 7, left, and Sophia, 5, as a WiFi van pulls up to their street to provide internet coverage for Santa Ana Unified school children on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. Many families said their service is spotty and “glitchy,” making remote learning and homework difficult. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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  • Jaden Montes, 9, and his six school-aged siblings will be able to have reliable internet service through the Santa Ana Unified School District. Eighty vans and school busses, like the one outside his window Tuesday, September 1, 2020, will scatter throughout the city to provided WiFi for remote students. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Brianna Montes, 11, says the internet she shared with her family, including six other school-age siblings, was “glitchy” and unreliable. On Tuesday, September 1, 2020 the Santa Ana Unified School District launched a WiFi program to help remote learners. “It’s way, way, way faster now,” she said as she worked at the kitchen table. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Jaden Montes, 9, watches as a WiFi van is parked on his street to provide internet coverage for Santa Ana Unified school children on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. He and his six school-aged siblings will now be able to have reliable internet service through the Santa Ana Unified School District. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • Ashley Sanchez, 13, with her brother Damian, 6, and grandma Rosalba, is all smiles after she is connected to WiFi through the Santa Ana School District on Tuesday, September 1, 2020. The 13-year-old eight-grader said having slow and unreliable service made her “stressed out” about schoolwork and homework.(Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A modem on the dash of a JFK Transportation van will provide1,000 square feet of WiFi coverage for remote Santa Ana Unified School students who are being taught remotely. About 80 vans and school busses will be scattered throughout the city, said David Palencia with JFK Transportation.(Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A JFK Transportation van rolls down the street in Santa Ana Tuesday, September 1, 2020. The company is providing WiFi service through the Santa Ana school district for remote students. About 80 vans and school busses will be scattered throughout the city, each providing 1,000 square feet of coverage or 3 football fields and 200 students, said David Palencia with JFK Transportation.(Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A welcome sight for many students in the Santa Ana Unified School District is a connection to fast internet service. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • JFK Transportation vans and school busses will be scattered throughout Santa Ana, providing coverage for remote students who don’t have reliable internet service. (Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

  • A JFK Transportation van rolls down the street in Santa Ana Tuesday, September 1, 2020. The company is providing WiFi service through the Santa Ana school district for remote students. About 80 vans and school busses will be scattered throughout the city, each providing 1,000 square feet of coverage or 3 football fields and 200 students, said David Palencia with JFK Transportation.(Photo by Mindy Schauer, Orange County Register/SCNG)

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“It was determined that some of our neighborhoods had spotty internet connection,” SAUSD spokesman Fermin Leal said.

The density of some areas, especially in the middle of the city where schools such as Roosevelt Elementary and Santa Ana High are located, was one factor making it difficult for all school-aged children to log on simultaneously, Leal said.

“Other districts have sent mobile hotspot units to their neighborhoods,” he said, “and we thought this could work in Santa Ana also.”

Santa Ana Unified contracts with JFK Transportation, but with its campuses, like all Orange County public school districts, closed and its students starting the year doing distance learning, the vans and buses were not in use. So JFK began outfitting its vehicles as mobile internet providers.

So far, JFK has five vans parking in areas in the city that need an internet boost.

“It’s way, way, way faster now,” Brianna Montes, 11, said Tuesday, Sept. 1, as she worked at the kitchen table with a JFK van parked nearby in her neighborhood. Six siblings in the family have all been trying to do their school work at the same time and until now, their internet connections were  “glitchy” and unreliable.

Several students in the neighborhood talked about being “stressed out” by their previous internet problems.

But anyone who thinks they can park near one of the JFK vans to get hotspot access is mistaken, officials said. Only SAUSD students have the login credentials to connect.

Photographer Mindy Schauer contributed to this report.

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