By Lester Chang
Saratoga High School and five Cupertino Union School District elementary schools are scheduled to participate in the "SmartSchools NetDay" event on March 9 to connect them with the Internet and to help bring students into the information age.
Area businesses will join volunteers, parents and school staffers to wire up Columbia, Meyerholz, Muir, Montclaire and Dilworth schools and to teach students how to use the Internet.
The schools join more than 100 Santa Clara and San Mateo institutions that will participate in the event sponsored by Smart Valley Inc., a Santa Clara-based organization committed to bringing technology to the public.
The effort will contribute to the goal of wiring 20 percent of California schools for computer networks, said Kathie Blankenship, director of communications for Smart Valley.
The event is an unprecedented, collaborative effort between more than 60 Silicon Valley firms, the San Jose Education Network, the school districts in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, parents, teachers and community volunteers, according to representatives from Smart Valley.
The event will include training for teachers and maintenance support for the networks, the group said.
The businesses will bear the cost of the hookup, estimated at an average of $300,000 per school. Participating businesses include IBM, Intel, Oracle, Silicon Graphics, Stratacom, Symantec, Tele-Communications Inc., WYSE Technologies.
The program recognizes the "broadening base of learning tools that computer networking technology offers," Pete Sinclair, president and chief operating officer of Smart Valley, said in a press release.
Most of the schools were wired before the day of the event.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, March 6, 1996.
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