For years, Isela Orozco’s internet connection let her family down at important moments. The Orozcos, who live on the Giacomini ranch outside Point Reyes Station, had a service through Tomales Bay LAN, but the signal didn’t reach her bedroom, and it seemed to fail as often as it worked. “It stopped working more often when it was windy, but it would stop working even if the day was beautiful,” Ms. Orozco said.
Her second grader at Inverness School and her fifth grader at West Marin School often missed out on schoolwork during remote learning. Her one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, who needed video calls with early intervention and feeding therapists, often missed sessions. Then, in August, Ms. Orozco picked up a simple device from the school that erased these problems. The family’s new satellite internet never cuts out or gets jammed, she said.
The Orozcos are one of 50 families clustered on West Marin ranches receiving free satellite internet connections as part of a collaborative program between the Shoreline Unified School District, county agencies and local nonprofits. The Shoreline Connectivity Project is intended to help low-income, mostly Spanish-speaking families in remote areas of the district whose lack of reliable internet access meant they fell behind during the pandemic. But it will have a widespread effect on tech equity for rural families, the program’s leaders say.
The lack of high-speed internet access has been a persistent problem in rural West Marin, and schools have searched hurriedly for solutions since the advent of remote learning. But Wi-Fi hotspots and learning hubs at libraries weren’t full fixes. A survey during the pandemic found 46 Shoreline students didn’t have internet access at home.
The San Rafael-based nonprofit Parent Services Project, which leads early childhood developmental programs in West Marin, began hosting digital literacy workshops at Shoreline’s elementary schools to help parents navigate their kids’ new tech needs.
Balandra Fregoso, the nonprofit’s executive director, said these workshops made clear that many families simply needed better internet at home. “With the pandemic, this tech equity issue just cracked open and we realized that there were so many families that needed help in this area,” Ms. Fregoso said. “It goes well beyond Zoom meetings. So much of our lives are still happening remotely.”
The nonprofit worked with Shoreline’s family advocates to identify the households most in need of better service, including Ms. Orozco’s, and began contacting them. Over the summer, Parent Services Project staff distributed satellite devices to 25 Shoreline families. Angelica Almanza, a family engagement coordinator with the nonprofit who helped parents set up the service, said she has received universally positive feedback and only a few minor troubleshooting calls from families. The group aims to distribute 25 more devices in January.
The internet is provided by Starlink, a company operated by SpaceX. Its dishes are relatively simple to install and rely on low-orbit satellites rather than cables and telephone poles. The program pays for service for three years, after which families must begin paying Starlink’s monthly rate—currently $110—or return the satellite dish and router, but Ms. Almanza said her group is searching for funding to continue paying the bills. Starlink’s cells don’t cover a few of the corners of the school district that extend into western Petaluma, but they can provide service from Bodega Bay and Valley Ford down to Inverness, Olema and the Point Reyes peninsula. Most of the families that have participated so far live outside of Point Reyes Station and Tomales or in the Point Reyes National Seashore.
The project, which also involved the Marin County Free Library and Marin Promise Partnership, cost $390,000, and received funding from the federal American Rescue Plan, the federal Emergency Connectivity Fund, the Marin Community Foundation, the Pinkus Family Foundation and the West Marin Fund.
Satellite internet is just part of a series of efforts that Marin’s Information Services and Technology division has made to improve internet access in West Marin. Earlier this month, the county announced it had received a $499,853 grant from the California Public Utilities Commission to fund studies and designs to build out broadband infrastructure in unincorporated Marin, including on the coast.