Butte College opening Child Development Center
Staff will recruit families in April and May, with priority going to low-income student parents
OROVILLE >> The Butte College safe reopening task force announced in a meeting March 4 the reopening of the Butte College Child Development Center for the fall 2021 semester.
The Child Development Center is a childcare facility for Butte College students which also serves as a day care for students with children in need of childcare.
The center will open Aug. 23 at half capacity, allowing 30 children child care in four rooms rather than the 72 children allowed before the pandemic. Hours of operation will be Monday through Thursday from 7:30 a.m. until 4 p.m, however staff said that hours could be altered to help with additional necessary cleaning measures.
There will be 16 students helping volunteering at the facility, a decrease from the approximately 60 Butte college students allowed to participate at full capacity.
Staff at the center will be prioritizing grant- qualifying low income student parents initially because of the limited capacity. Center Director Julie vanderEyck and her team will be enrolling families in the program in April and May.
The center is taking COVID-19 safety measures including children having their health and temperature checked before entering. There will also be a hand washing station outside of the building for students to wash their hands before entering.
VanderEyck believes the more in-person learning a child can participate in a safe manner, the more they can flourish socially and emotionally.
“I feel that offering in person care on main campus will benefit student parents greatly who need care while they are working on their college classes,” VanderEyck said. “Having time to study when their child is receiving care will help them to complete their course work.”
After Butte College announced that 50 percent of its classes would have an in-person component in the fall, President Samia Yaqub said the next step was to find out what services the school was going to offer to those students who were face-toface.
“We reviewed the protocols there and then listened to the staff give their pitch about why they should be able to reopen and we thought they had all the pieces in place to do it safely and we gave them the green light for that,” Yaqub said. “Basically, we’re continually trying to find ways to return back to on ground work and learning.”