Peekskill Technology Equity Community Coalition

The Students of the Peekskill City School District need equitable access to the internet. With schooling requiring online access during these turbulent times, many families of our district can not afford access to high speed internet, which would allow their children to fully participate in their education on the days when school must be virtual. The district has been able to reach a 1 to 1 ratio for our students with additional Chromebook purchases over the summer, but providing internet is where our community has come in. The PEF worked along side other community partners in the Peekskill Technology Equity Community Coalition to raise the money towards a purchase of MiFi WiFi Hotspot Units, to provide families that have a need for internet access and to give them access to their public school education. Each unit can allow up to 5 devices at a time, meaning an entire family can have their students learning online at the same time, on Chromebooks borrowed from the PCSD to access: online classes and lessons; to attend tele-health visits with their doctors; parent- teacher meetings; PCSD sponsored events like Saturday Academy; PTO meetings; and a variety of other events that are available online at this time in our community.

Our initial fundraising deadline was August 26th, but was extended to September 15th. During this 6 week period the Peekskill Technology Community Coalition, which consisted of: Peekskill NAACP, Peekskill Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), Peekskill Youth Bureau, Peekskill Coffee, Manzer’s Landscaping, Feder Knives, Mount Olivet Baptist Church and The Peekskill Education Foundation; the Coalition raised over $40,000, which is enough to purchase 160+ MiFi WiFi Hotspot Units for Peekskill City School District Families. We have extended our final fundraising deadline through October 31st, 2020.

The Coalition’s efforts were written about by the Peekskill Herald on October 8th, 2020. Click Here to read the post.