BUCKHANNON – The Stockert Youth and Community Center is organizing a study hall that would take place before their regular after-school program.
Debora Brockleman, director of Stockert Youth & Community Center, said the center wanted to help parents who have to work – but have children with nowhere else to go on virtual learning days.
“The children are only going to school two days a week,” Brockelman said. “We, of course, will be here for after-school as we normally are, but parents have to work so their kids need to go somewhere.”
The study hall would be available for children on the days they are not in school but need somewhere to go – somewhere where they can find people who are willing to help them with their schoolwork.
“We’re not going to be a daycare, but because we are a school-age program, we could offer for the kids to come here during the day, from 8 a.m. to noon, and bring their iPads or their Chromebooks – whatever their device is – and they could do their virtual work here and they would have supervision or help, because we have some staff that can help,” Brockleman said.
SYCC also plans to offer two different blocks of time for children to stay at Stockert on Wednesdays.
“On Wednesdays, there is no school, so we were going to offer blocks of time, if kids need to come, from 8 a.m. to noon, or 1 to 5 p.m.,” Brockleman said. “We’re offering that, so the kids have three days a week that they would come to Stockert.”
Both of these programs – the after-school program and a potential study hall – do not offer a bus service, meaning parents will be required to provide transportation to and from Stockert.
“The other part of this is, it won’t be like activities we normally offer – it’ll be just for schoolwork,” she said. “Our regular after-school program will be schoolwork, and we’ll have some activities. The study hall is what we’re calling it to differentiate it from the regular after-school program.”
The regular after-school program will still be in place and is available for registration now, but this program is only for the days kids have attended school in person.
“We recently went to an online register registration, and for right now, we just have the after-school component up and running,” Brockleman said. “Soon, you’ll be able to register for basketball, drill team and summer camp – whatever we have going on, but right now the after-school program is live up and running.”
People can register for programs at Stockert by going to Stockertyouth.recdesk.com.
“There is just a need now – parents have to work, and kids can’t be home alone, and they need help, and we want to be able to help them,” Brockleman said. “We want to be there for them as a support for the parents and give kids somewhere to go.”
Brockelman said SYCC staff members aren’t sure how many tutors they will have this year since most of their tutors come from West Virginia Wesleyan College, and the college recently announced classes would be entirely virtual for the fall semester.
If you’re interested in volunteering to tutor, give SYCC a call at 304-473-0145 or message them on Facebook.
