Pine Belt schools affected by COVID-19 Technology Grant

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) - During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mississippi awarded state schools with a $150 million grant for technology access for students.

One of those school districts was Lamar County School District.

“When that funding came, we definitely were able to finally get the devices into the hands of students,” said Liz Taormina, the instructional technologist for Lamar County School District.

LCSD is one of the largest in the state with well over 10,000 students. Adapting to the pandemic was a transition for the school, along with many in the country. Students had to learn an online-only format, and teachers adapted to using solely technology to teach.

“... We were able to get the devices for the teachers, they needed an upgrade, as well, in order to have the connectivity on there and to continue that learning process the virtual hybrid even inside the classroom,” Taormina said.

The University of Mississippi School of Education conducted a study on Mississippi’s response to education during the pandemic and concluded that the state as a whole improved. Sara Platt, leader of the Ole Miss study, said that learning to use new technology was key during the pandemic.

“Also, we need to learn how to use technology effectively, and that is one of the huge things,” said Platt. “You can have a computer, you can have all of these different things in their classrooms, but if you’d don’t know how to use it or if you don’t really know how to engage students with it, it’s a disservice. So, that’s one of the big pieces that we wanted to look at.”

The Equity and Distance Learning Act allowed for the purchase of nearly 400,000 technological devices for 148 out of the 150 Mississippi school districts.

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