Aurora looks to fund increased internet service for learning centers in the city - Chicago Tribune

Aurora wants to money bringing accrued net work to 11 learning centers for low-income radical successful the city.

City Council members volition ballot Tuesday connected providing $100,000 to OnLight Aurora, the city’s not-for-profit fibre optic system, to supply the net entree arsenic portion of the No Child Left Offline programme launched successful January.

No Child Left Offline is an inaugural that identified assemblage organizations that supply distant acquisition spaces for low-income children and residents, but were besides successful request of exertion upgrades.

City and OnLight officials worked with each enactment to place existing connectivity issues and prioritize the champion solution.

The centers are: Hesed House; Simply Destinee; APS Training Institute; Warren F. Cannon Community Outreach Center; Main Baptist Church; Simard Hall astatine Sacred Heart Catholic Church; Grand Boulevard Community Center; Randall West Community Center; the Aurora Public Library; Indian Trail Apartments; and LaQuinta Kids Internet Cafe.

Officials spent 3 months installing upgrades. Older networks, modems and hotspots were replaced with high-capacity networks and accrued entree points, according to metropolis officials.

With the improvements, locations were made overmuch much susceptible of providing distant learning spaces for kids, metropolis officials said. The locations volition payment from a sustainable, semipermanent solution to net connectivity and bandwidth for years to come, they said.

The program is to walk $100,000 for each of the adjacent 5 years to wage for the connectivity. Because aldermen placed the expenditure connected the consent agenda, it is apt to walk Tuesday.

slord@tribpub.com