Camp Verde Unified School District was closed on Thursday, April 26, leading to hundreds of children without usual teacher supervision for a day that few parents planned for. But even as the schools closed, some of those very same teachers joined with local religious leaders to offer a childcare option for young kids.
Parkside Church took in 10 children, between Kindergarten and fifth grade on Thursday, for free. Six teachers from CVUSD spent the day of the walkout helping the church to take care of their students, along with volunteers from the church staff. Though they offered free care to families that showed up, the church suggested a donation of $10 per child, or $20 per family, which was split up among the staff using their time not being paid by the school to take care of children.
The whole operation was put together quickly in the days leading up to the walkout, as the community scrambled to handle the unprecedented challenge of a district-wide teacher strike.
“The teachers strike is so unique that I’m not sure something like this has ever presented itself,” said Cole Dulas, the children’s ministry director at Parkside, who helped to organize the program along with Lori Showers, a kindergarten teacher at Parkside.
Dulas said that while the church was planning to provide supplies for the child care itself, they had been pleasantly surprised by “generous and anonymous donors” within the community who provided some, as well.
Parkside was prepared for up to 60 kids, meaning that the impromptu daycare was well resourced to handle the much smaller attendance that showed up.
“It was potentially not as deep-rooted a need as we expected, but it was still a wonderful day,” Dulas said, adding that the smaller group of children meant that in addition to usual activities, the staff helping out were able to turn the daycare into a sort of tutoring exercise for the kids. “It allowed for a lot more of that one-on-one sort of attention.”
Jon Hecht can be reached at 282-7795 or email jhecht@larsonnewspapers.com
