ADVISORY/Boston Becomes First Fully Wired Urban School District.

--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1998

MATHER ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 

1 PARISH STREET, DORCHESTER, MA

11:00 a.m.

PRESS WILL HAVE ACCESS TO BUSINESS PARTNERS, THE MAYOR, THE

SUPERINTENDENT, SENATOR KENNEDY AND OTHER

SPOKESPERSONS FROM 10:30 a.m. TO 11:00 a.m.

WE CAN ALSO ARRANGE FOR PRESS TO SPEAK WITH

STUDENTS, TEACHERS AND PARENTS.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino will join Senator Edward Kennedy, Superintendent Thomas W. Payzant and more than 350 Boston Public School students to announce that Boston is the first urban school district in the nation to network every school and community center.

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Schedule of events:

10:30a.m.     Business partners meet in the Mather School library for
              coffee. Media is welcome to use this time to speak to
              representatives from the companies that made this major
              milestone possible with more than $26 million in
              donations.

11:00a.m      Press Conference. Mayor Menino, Senator Kennedy, and
              Superintendent Payzant will join teachers and student
              speakers for the announcement.

11:30a.m.     Tour of Mather School computer lab. Media will have the
              opportunity to view public school students' work and ask
              questions of teachers and students.

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Joint Venture Will Make Boston First

Big City in U.S. to Network Every School

"The gulf between students who have a home computer and those who don't is one of the most troubling inequities in the education system...It isn't just that the have nots are forced to turn in work that is less polished. They also are falling behind in computer skills they will need in college and the job market, and they are unlikely to be exposed to as many facts and ideas as classmates who can navigate the Internet." -- "Class Problems for Computer Have Nots" by David Nakamura, The Washington Post, March 11, 1998

Boston will become the first large urban school district in the nation to network every school and library when it celebrates Boston Net Day on October 26, 1998.

The achievement is a major milestone in a two-year-old public/private partnership that has attracted more than $26 million in outside funding to bring computer technology to Boston's 64,000 students and 4,800 teachers.

Concerned by the growing disparities in access to new technology between urban and suburban populations, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino in 1996 announced his plan to install one computer for every four students and wire all schools, libraries and community centers to the Internet by 2001. Also that year, President Clinton and Vice President Gore unveiled a challenge to wire every school in the U.S. to the Internet by the turn of the century. In October, Boston becomes the first major urban school district in America to meet that

challenge.

According to researchers, 70% of America's families with incomes over $50,000 have computers in the home. But 90% of Boston students lacked access to computers at home when the initiative began. Now, every student will have a chance to use technology as a learning tool and prepare for productive lives in a city where 60% of all jobs will require technology skills by the year 2000.

Over 100 business partners, including 3Com, Intel, HiQ and Microsoft, have joined government and the community, including labor unions such as the I.B.E.W., to make Boston's goal a reality.

Corporate donors also helped to create the first free training facility to help teachers incorporate technology into their curriculum, to supplement traditional "chalk and talk" teaching with new interactive learning applications. And the Boston Teachers Union encourages every teacher to undertake a technology assessment and develop a plan for utilizing new school technology.

Business executives say they invested in Boston because of Mayor Menino's and the appointed School Committee's commitment to education and because of confidence in Boston's Superintendent of Schools, Thomas Payzant. The Superintendent points to the new technology as another vehicle to reach higher standards of teaching and learning in the classroom as well as greater accountability throughout the system.

The networking of every school and library in Boston will connect students and teachers to educational resources outside the classroom. It will equip students with new tools to enrich learning. It will provide teachers with new ways to motivate students. It will allow greater use of e-mail to enhance communication among educators and parents. And it will enable schools to benefit from the City's new contract with Cablevision, which commits the cable company to provide every school and library with free high-speed Internet service for the next ten years.

For more information, please contact Steve Gag, Mayor's Office, 617-635-2338, [e-mail] - One City Hall Square, Room 608, Boston, MA 02201