A $2 million grant from the Golden Leaf Foundation will fund the infrastructure needed to provide high-speed Internet access to public schools in the six westernmost counties, foundation officials announced Monday (Oct. 3).

Rather than allocate money to individual counties, the grant has been awarded to the Southwestern North Carolina Planning and Economic Development Commission to aid in the creation of the Western North Carolina Education Network, or WNC EdNET for short.

In applying for the grant, EdNET support staff and technical advisers from regional K-12 schools, institutions of higher education and their related administrative facilities analyzed what equipment was required for high-speed connectivity.

“We had made a grant for a similar project in Eastern North Carolina, and we decided with this one we wanted to do something for WNC in terms of high-speed access and we decided the best thing to do was to go to the schools and find out what they needed,” said William Clarke, chairman of the Golden Leaf Board of Directors.

A majority of the grant will be used to purchase electronics and cables for individual school systems and to contract with a regional high-speed provider to run fiber to each of the schools involved, said Valerie Lee, Golden Leaf Foundation president.

Estimated expenditures include $432,951 in Cherokee County, $37,270 in Clay, $287,925 in Graham, $417,534 in Jackson, $413,302 in Macon, $171,496 in Swain, $73,147 for Cherokee Tribal Schools, $15,000 for Southwestern Community College, $52,000 for Tri-County Community College, $15,000 for Western Carolina University, and $104,362 for the Southwestern Commission.

Approximately $150,000 of the grant will go toward general project support and teacher training on how to effectively incorporate high-speed access into the classroom.

“We see it happening on a school-by-school basis,” Lee said of the technology’s incorporation, noting that the Foundation is not prescribing any set curriculum.

The connectivity could provide for distance education opportunities and a sharing of resources between schools, as well as increased abilities for research and lesson modification to address different learning styles, Lee said.

At Blue Ridge School near Cashiers in Jackson County, the promise of high-speed access may result in new lesson plans.

“I think if it’s something that we can count on working on a fairly consistent basis, then the teachers are going to use it,” said Principal Carol Rector.

Now, Internet access at the mountaintop school is not dependable. A bad Internet connection could result in getting behind on the lesson plan.

However, Blue Ridge represents a challenge in terms of just getting connected in the first place.

“My understanding as far as Blue Ridge is concerned is we’re not getting the same things as some of the other schools are just because of our distance and location,” Rector said.

Comparisons at this point are difficult to make, as the $2 million grant award is only part of what Bob Byrd, education improvement specialist with the Western Region Education Service Alliance, called a $5 million project.

The $2 million grant is designed only to provide the infrastructure for high-speed connectivity, not actually connect the system to individual schools. What will be critical to ensuring that the grant monies are not wasted is finding continued support for the project and additional funds to bridge the gap between connectivity and the classroom, Byrd said.

“We’re not letting that part rest, that’s our biggest concern quite frankly,” Byrd said.

School systems will use their regular technology budgets to help maintain the high-speed system, and EdNET will be eligible to apply for grant monies for further development. Byrd said a focus would be placed on finding innovative uses for the technology through higher education and peer-to-peer training.

“We’ll find what I call vanguard teachers across the state, the teachers that are really doing some neat stuff with maximizing learning using technology, to start helping lead the leaders,” Byrd said.

Bids from fiber providers should be submitted within six weeks, Lee said, with a contract to be awarded in December or January. The project should be completed by May of 2007.

Since its inception, the Golden Leaf Foundation has made 365 grants totaling $132,413,319 to nonprofit organizations and government entities throughout North Carolina to help communities make the transition from a tobacco-dependent economy and to create new job opportunities.