Boone County Commission approves 1,000 additional hot spots for CPS

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Thursday afternoon, the Boone County Commission approved 1,000 additional hot spots for Columbia Public Schools to give to students who do not have a sustainable internet connection.

This comes after the commission used part of the CARES Act funding to get 1,400 hot spots total for all six school districts in Boone County.

CPS originally requested 700 hot spots, Centralia requested 15, Hallsville requested 100, Harrisburg requested 80, Sturgeon requested 50 and Southern Boone requested 400.

A spokeswoman for CPS, Michelle Baumstark, said more students will qualify for this new round of hot spots.

"First priority was families with no internet and who receive free and reduced-price lunch. We're now working through the list of requests from families that may still have need, but did not fit the first priority need criteria," she said.

So far CPS has already provided more than 1,500 hot spots to students, including the original 700 hot spots from the CARES Act funding.

Daniel Atwill, the Presiding Commissioner, said the Sturgeon school district and Harrisburg have asked the commission to use CARES funding on temperature testing.

"They are requesting temperature testing machinery which we are in the process of approving," he said.

Atwill said, as far as he can tell the additional hot spots are exclusively for Columbia Public Schools.

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