Spokane Public Schools Day Camp gets big demand
Spokane Public Schools’ new day camp has drawn overwhelming interest from working families.
By Friday afternoon, registration exceeded capacity for the SPS Day Camp, in which 20 students will be supervised at each of 34 school sites as they learn remotely from their regular teachers.
The program is part of the district’s back-to-school package amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The day camps are envisioned to help families that are unable to be home with their school-age children to help and supervise their remote learning via computer.
The district’s description of the day camps said students will “receive structure and routines that help them engage in their real-time distance learning.”
“I’m not surprised at the demand,” Associate Superintendent Mark Anderson said Friday.
“Folks are very appreciative that they have this option, especially for working families – it’s an option that meets a need,” he added .
As of Friday, 760 children were registered for the day camps and a separate offering, the full-day Express day care at Finch and Roosevelt elementary schools.
By the end of September, the day camps will be offered at the other 32 elementary schools, plus Glover and Chase middle schools.
However, that still will not be enough to satisfy demand. The district says that due to the high volume of registrations, “a completed registration may not guarantee entry.”
The district had originally planned for a maximum of 40 children per site. However, that number has been cut to 20 in order to preserve social distancing standards while adding a handful of special education and English Language Development students at most sites.
The day camps will be phased in over three weeks, with 12 sites opening on the first day of school on Sept. 14, and the rest by the end of the month.
Camps will be open Monday through Friday, from 7:45 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. for registered students. The cost is $25 per day per student, with a 15% discount for siblings. Anderson said the district is working with community partners to provide scholarship money that would allow the day camps to be self-sufficient.
“We’re going to try to make it that way,” Anderson said.
The camps will be led by a staff member, with assistance from a variety of other staff. A food- service employee will also be on-site to prepare meals, which are included in the $25 cost.
Employing the same model used during the school closings last spring, staffers will screen each child and enforce mask-wearing and social distancing, a practice which resulted in no infections.