How does Turlock’s distance learning camp work? Here’s an inside look
As a hospital nurse and a firefighter, Kristina Moore and her husband cannot stay at home to guide their 7-year-old daughter through a virtual school day.
So, while Dennis Earl Elementary and the rest of Turlock Unified School District remain closed, Moore’s daughter attends a distance learning camp where city staff supervise 50 students in kindergarten through sixth grade through a schedule of remote class time, activities and food breaks.
“We’re very, very, very thankful as working parents that there’s a program like this,” Moore said. “We did not know what we were going to do except pay a babysitter $150 a day to watch Quynn and try to teach her.”
Considering the space at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds and how the group compares to a school student population, staff believe they can adequately comply with social distancing and other coronavirus guidelines, said Allison Van Guilder, director of Turlock’s Parks, Recreation and Public Facilities Department. Per state orders, in-person classes cannot resume until Stanislaus County stays off the COVID-19 watch list for 14 days or unless the health officer grants a waiver for elementary schools.
Turlock camp safety measures health screenings
Twenty-one staff supervise the children split into groups of 10 to limit their contacts throughout the program, which began Aug. 12 and runs weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m, Van Guilder said. Any siblings stay in the same pod together and store their belongings in the same designated space.
On Friday morning, students sat about six feet apart in a fairgrounds building that had a dining capacity of 800 people before the pandemic. Except for those taking a snack break, all wore a face covering as they watched teachers on their individual laptops and spoke answers into headsets. No children or staff are currently exempt from wearing a covering, Van Guilder said.
During a break outside, small groups sometimes played and stood closer than six feet apart. Children also shared frisbees and balls with each other and staff, but recreation coordinator James Governale said they wash hands before and after. Other city staff used the time to disinfect tables inside.
Staff got experience practicing safe recreation guidelines and discouraging high-touch activities such as tag through a summer camp program in July, Governale said. On average, 18 children participated in the program each day at the same site, Van Guilder said. As far as they know, no COVID cases were reported among participants of that camp.
Usually Governale supervises before and after school program staff, but now he spends his days running the distance learning camp, keeping track of safety checklists, responding to parent concerns and helping children log on to their classes.
“We’re doing our best to make sure that everything is clean and safe and that the kids are enjoying themselves still,” Governale said. “If we were to get too far into the clean and safe and not worry at all about their fun, then it’d be boring for them. But I think they’re really enjoying it and we’re striking that balance really well.”
Moore, for one, praised how staff kept her seven-year-old daughter on task and said Quynn enjoys doing the arts and crafts activities, too. Moore also likened the camp’s daily health screening process, which includes a temperature and symptom check at the entrance, to the one she goes through at Kaiser Modesto Medical Center. At $110 a week with an annual fee of $55, she said the program is cheap compared to paying a babysitter $15 per hour to watch her only child.
Wait list remains
As of last week, 63 students remained on the wait list, Van Guilder said. Whether staff open additional spots on top of the current 50-person limit depends on whether they can safely and effectively manage more students, she said.
No end date currently exists for the weekly program because a Turlock Unified School District reopening date depends on the county staying off the state watch list, said recreation supervisor Karen Packwood. Families that no longer want to participate in the program can drop out, she said, but in general staff do not plan to rotate different sets of participants for safety reasons.
When it comes to the cost of renting the space, Stanislaus County Fair CEO Matt Cranford said the fee basically covers the air conditioning and power. The fair isn’t profiting from the rental, Cranford said, and the city is the first entity to rent the building since the coronavirus pandemic began.
This story was originally published August 18, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
