Facilitating Local Success

Mississippi Department of Education
Zucchini Dean
State NetDay Coordinator
Mississippi Department of Education
www.mde.k12.ms.us

In Mississippi, corporations like BellSouth and Anixter brought the idea of NetDay to the state, and, with encouragement from leaders of the NetDay organization in California, the State Department of Education organized the effort. They wanted NetDay activities in Mississippi to remain a grassroots effort where school districts, local businesses, and parents took ownership. The department facilitated the program by recruiting volunteers, developing partnerships with companies, and creating buy-in from school districts.

As a state of primarily rural communities, civic pride meant that schools had plenty of volunteers, but low school funding meant the schools had few resources to purchase supplies for volunteers to use during NetDay. The problem was solved when Belden-Wire & Cable Co. of Richmond, Indiana donated 342,000 feet of cable through the NetDay organization.

They brought the wire down in a truck from Indiana in thousand foot rolls, and we stockpiled them in Dr. Helen Soule's [Mississippi Director of Educational Technology, Training and Support] husband's warehouse. Our NetDay efforts started with schools in empowerment and enterprise zones. We delivered cable based on free and reduced lunch levels, accreditation level, and on student achievement, so that cable went to lowest performing schools first.
-- Zucchini Dean

Leadership Lends a Hand

Carthage, Mississippi in Leake County
Gary Rawson,
Volunteer Parent to Schools
Infrastructure Planning Coordinator
Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services

As part of an economic development program called Leadership Leake County, volunteers in this rural Mississippi county came up with projects to improve the community and Gary Rawson's team chose NetDay. The county has seven public schools run by a district office located in the county seat of Carthage, population 12,000 and one private school. The model of volunteers pitching in to accomplish a task is not new to this community.

It was easy to get the community excited because the structure already exists. We put up a banner in front of the meeting building to make people aware. I knew whom to call to do things: cook hamburgers, bring supplies, provide labor , etc. everyone pitched in and worked toward a common goal. All the volunteers walked in and asked, "What can I do?" The biggest challenge was putting the people in jobs that used their talents.
-- Gary Rawson

Rawson estimates that the district saved $200,000 through community involvement, donations and support. For the NetDay project, the group raised $12,000 to satisfy a budget of $10,000, and only spent $7,000 to complete the task. The remaining funds were used to upgrade the school's PCs to utilize the network. Even the students pitched in, donating extra cash in jars set up at the local schools. The community combined all of the donations for both public and private schools to satisfy the needs of the whole community.

Today, the network extends to all classrooms and students have exposure to the Internet, word processing, and networking. Rawson and his team have been recognized by the state as one of the top 10 leadership projects for NetDay.

Connecting Drew to the World

Drew School District
Dennis Silas
Assistant Superintendent
Drew School District
www2.mde.k12.ms.us/6720

Drew School District has 850 students attending a high school, a middle school, and an elementary school. They come to the schools from a wide geographic area including Drew, population 2,000; Rome, population 450, and the children of employees at Parchman Mississippi Department of Corrections. All of the students receive free or reduced lunch and fewer than 10% of students have home Internet access.

Assistant Superintendent Dennis Silas learned about NetDay when he received a letter from the Mississippi Department of Education about training at Ole Miss. He brought a team - a principal, a teacher, and a couple of parents to the training - where they learned to punch down and pull wires. In the car, on the way home, the team thought it couldn't be done in Drew because they lacked expertise, but they decided to try. The community came together: the local hardware store donated supplies and ladders, BellSouth provided volunteers, a local grocery store donated food, and the volunteers pulled more than three drops to every classroom.

The connections made possible through NetDay enable Drew High School to communicate with larger schools in nearby Harrison County. Through distance learning over the Internet, students can enroll in classes such as advanced calculus, physics, and foreign language courses. Without such a network, the students at Drew would not have access to the same quality of education as their peers.

Our best story is that it really happened in a town like Drew. Living in Drew, Mississippi is almost like living in a Third World Country compared to major cities when it comes to the availability of technology. We actually did NetDay activities and the schools got wired. The wiring was a major accomplishment. We had almost no expertise in the community, and it still worked.
-- Dennis Silas