Jeff Gatlin, Chief Operating Officer of Roaring Fork Schools, holds up a broadband high speed internet receiver while standing next to a transmitter array on top of the roof of Basalt Elementary Friday afternoon.Īccording to Jeff Gatlin, chief operating officer for Roaring Fork Schools, some families could not get immediate internet access when schools first went online. Additional families had low-quality internet access that was either too slow or did not work well with multiple people using it simultaneously. Last April, a Roaring Fork Schools survey found that 340 students - about 6% of the district’s student population - did not have access to the internet for remote learning. Of its 226 students, English in Action found that only 43% had access to a computer - and some of those students did not know how to use it. In the Roaring Fork Valley, data is even more limited, but several groups that conducted technology surveys in their communities found significant gaps in digital equity. The state estimates that 87% of rural households have sufficient broadband access, but those estimates are based on self-reported data from internet providers. Hard data on technology access is limited in Colorado. “And then just imagine if all of that’s also in a language that you’re not used to.” “I think about all the quick little keypad strokes that I know that for my 70-year-old parents, it … blows their minds,” she said. From the discussions, a wide range of problems emerged: families couldn’t access online forms for pandemic assistance kids couldn’t attend school online older adults couldn’t manage food deliveries and people couldn’t receive telehealth services.Īccording to Schalit, many suffering the most were part of immigrant communities or did not speak English as their first language. Schalit launched an internet-equity roundtable early during the pandemic to bring together different groups throughout the Roaring Fork Valley and identify technological issues. “We can hustle and get it done, but the systems have to change.” “The valley rallied super hard (during the pandemic), and we still let people fall through the cracks,” said Sydney Schalit, executive director of Manaus, a social-justice nonprofit based in Carbondale. Many of the resulting initiatives will continue to help some people connect long after the pandemic is over, but major gaps still remain. Nongovernmental organizations, school districts and government agencies in rural mountain towns acted quickly to bridge the digital divide. “Now we know that even with loosening restrictions around COVID, digital literacy is still going to be essential for our participants.” ![]() “Digital literacy has always been an obstacle, but pre-COVID, we had other areas that came more to the forefront,” said Lara Beaulieu, executive director of English in Action. Technological inequities have long been present in rural places such as the Roaring Fork Valley, but the sudden shutdowns illuminated just how deeply entrenched the problem was. As a result, English in Action lost about a third of its participants during the pandemic. While Posada was able to persevere, many in valley residents were never able to jump on a Zoom meeting. But many people in the Roaring Fork Valley were cut off from certain services or activities because they lacked access to the internet and/or the technical know-how needed to use it. sometimes if you are looking for a specific type of wildflower, if you have just missed its bloom at a lower elevation, sometimes you can still find it a little higher up.When the pandemic hit, life pretty much moved online. with rain and 47 degree down low and heavy snow and 22 degrees up high. the tops of the highest mountains run at about three weeks behind the lower elevations in terms of greening up.įor example last Sunday there was a twenty-five degree difference between 1500 feet and 5,000. a warm late winter or spring can move it up several weeks.Īlso remember that because of the great differences in elevation (and thus temperature). but agian that is highly weather dependent. ![]() I think the 2nd week of April is when that (on average) takes place. at the end of March the wildflowers will most likley not have peaked yet. and then still pack for both options because the forecasters tend to miss things quite a bit.Īs for the foilage. and the snow more limited to the higher elevations.īest thing to do is check the forecast just before you leave. but once you get to the end of the month things will (on average) be on the warmer side of the equation. ![]() in fact some of the heavier snows we get often come in mid-March. it might be 70 degrees one day and literally come a blizzard the next (1993). March is really a mixed bag here that time of year.
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