The Montgomery County Public School system in Virginia has been an example to follow throughout the COVID-19 era, truly capitalizing on creativity to provide students with access to good and services that have been rendered virtually inaccessible given national shut-down orders.
A few weeks ago, the school system began using buses to deliver daily meals and reading material to children stuck at home. Now, those deliveries are being made via drone.
The system's invention surely benefits from its home base, Christiansburg, which also happens to be where Google's drone delivery division, Wing, is set up.
The initiative was spearheaded by Kelly Passek, the Blacksburg Middle School librarian that petitioned Wing to send books to students using their drones. "I’m always looking for ways to increase my students’ access to resources,” Passek told WDBJ7 last week. "We are trying to find as many ways as possible to stay connected to [the students],” she said. After coming up with the idea, the librarian contacted Superintendent Dr. Mark Miear to discuss the opportunity. Dr. Miear jumped on board immediately and Montgomery County Public Schools students became the first in the world to have library books fly directly to them last Thursday.
The drones—obviously unmanned but looked over by remote pilots—being used are either airplanes or quadcopters that fly faster than 70 miles per hour and, once reaching their destinations, lower down the packages using a cable. Only folks that live in "delivery zones" (basically pre-designated safe zones for deliveries) can opt into the system. Prospective package receivers can sign up for the program here.
Needless to say, the district has also waived return policies throughout the summer—so the students can go ahead and return their books to the library once the school year starts up again.
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