This foundation is raising money for Manatee County education during COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic forced teachers and students to finish the school year online, a daunting and costly endeavor.

In response, the Manatee Education Foundation — not to be confused with the teacher’s union, Manatee Education Association — has created the COVID-19 Relief Fund.

MEF President Mary Glass learned about a shortage of WiFi hotspots, especially in the most at-need communities, and she was motivated to help bring students online. Glass hoped to fill any gaps created by the pandemic, and she said there were numerous possibilities.

“If it’s a green screen or headphones or a monitor with a camera, there’s a lot of things that some of us didn’t have when this all came about,” she said. “Our homes weren’t perfectly outfitted to host a classroom.”

The relief fund, launched by the education foundation earlier this month, was announced in a news release from the school district on Wednesday morning. It pointed donors to the foundation’s website, www.mefinfo.org.

Glass said her foundation raised approximately $40,000 over the past several weeks.

“That’s going right out the door,” she said.

The initial donations were earmarked for 81 Verizon hotspots and one year of service for each device, according to Kevin Chapman, director of strategic planning for the school district.

Hotspots are meant for individual students and families, and the district rolled out dozens of WiFi-equipped school buses over the past month, creating mobile hotspots for the community.

As of April 19, about 97 percent of the students in district-run programs — not including charter schools or home-schoolers, for example — had accessed online learning at least once. The rate of weekly participation varied.

While the relief fund is currently supporting internet access and connecting students with their online classes, community needs will surely evolve, and the program will adapt to meet those needs, Glass said.

Community support, she said, would help teachers and families in the current school year, and it would help with unforeseen needs during the summer and the upcoming school year.

“This thing isn’t going away overnight,” Glass said. “I feel like this relief fund could give people a place to go if they wanted to help.”

In a prepared statement, Superintendent Cynthia Saunders said she was grateful for the community support, and she vowed to prioritize education and safety during the pandemic.

“The MEF COVID-19 Relief Fund can help us take a burden from families who are having to make unbelievable sacrifices during the crisis,” she said.

This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 1:50 PM.