2015 ISSUE 5 Develop, Innovate, Prosper
Rural School Creates New Learning Opportunities with OneNet’s Help
OneNet is State Regents for Higher Education’s statewide Internet service provider Just a few years ago, Butner Public Schools had almost nothing — not even an address. Today, they still don’t have an address, but it’s hard to find a student without an iPad in their clutches. The World Wide Web has not always been so accessible to the young students of Cromwell, Oklahoma — a remote, rural community where more than one in five people live below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. So what’s changed? For starters, the school received a million dollar grant from the Oklahoma State Department of Education. “We were lucky to receive all of this money, which we spent on computers, tablets and a slew of online learning tools,” Butner Public Schools Superintendent Bobbette Hamilton said. “But there was a sense of despair, because we couldn’t use any of it.” Butner Principal Melissa Allensworth-
Baughman said the school’s connection was too slow to handle streaming a single video on YouTube, let alone 240 students trying to better themselves. After months of staring at her shiny new toys, Hamilton brought her predicament to OneNet. OneNet is a division of the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and Oklahoma’s only statewide Internet service provider. OneNet offers advanced Internet and
networking services to Oklahoma’s education, research, health care and public service communities. OneNet made the connections needed, but it still wasn’t enough. New fiber routes had to be built from scratch to give Butner students the broadband to match their educational needs. “We negotiated with AT&T to build the last stretch of fiber needed,” OneNet’s
IN THIS ISSUE Economic Indicators
Business News
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Upcoming Events
GRDA’s Impact in Oklahoma p. 2
OSU Student Startup Billy Goat Ice Cream in Stores Now p. 3
Community Partnership with USA Tank Creates Jobs in Wewoka p. 7
State Capital Publishing Building Request for Proposals p. 8
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