Carmel High Student Senate delivers petition asking district to study campus internet and cellular connectivity

Juliet Norman, president of the Carmel High School Student Senate and the associated student body president for the year, told the Carmel Unified School District Board during public comment that students and staff on the Carmel High campus experience frequent internet and cellular connectivity problems and asked the district to study and address the issue.

“The current technological state at Carmel High School is such that students, faculty, and staff have difficulty and are often completely unable to access internet or cellular connectivity,” Norman said. She told the board the connectivity problems are a health concern because students rely on medically necessary technology such as glucose monitors, a safety concern because poor connectivity limits efficient emergency communication, and an educational concern because many classroom resources are online.

Norman described the Student Senate’s proposed remedies: conduct a site survey to determine coverage and capacity needs; consider multi‑carrier repeaters, network extenders and/or metro cells for cellular coverage; and upgrade the campus wireless LAN or Wi‑Fi solution. She said a petition requesting these improvements was signed by 144 students, faculty and staff and asked to deliver a copy to the board. Board staff accepted the materials for the public record.

The board did not take action during the meeting; the petition was submitted to the executive assistant for distribution and inclusion in the public record.