Hall Neighborhood House restarts childrens programs
BRIDGEPORT — Trying to keep a young child from hugging a beloved teacher has proven to be one of the trickiest things about reopening Hall Neighborhood House’s early childhood program.
“It’s hard for them,” said Robert Dzurenda, Hall’s executive director. “When we opened yesterday, a little girl who had not seen me since March ran up and jumped onto me. I was looking around at my nurses to see if this was OK . ... Others look for a high five when they do something right. It’s hard to contain their level of excitement.”
Shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic, Hall Neighborhood House reopened its early childhood and after school programs Monday on a limited basis and with strict health rules in place.
“We selected 20 children between ages 2 to 10 to gauge how it will go,” Dzurenda said. “Our plan is to add another 30 each week.
We’ll be watching carefully and making needed changes . ... We’re putting 10 kids in a room and we have 17 rooms. No one except the staff and the children are allowed in the building. Parents must wait outside.”
Sacred Heart University nursing student volunteers will be taking temperatures daily of children and adults and staff and staffers will wear masks at all times. Children will be regularly reminded to avoid contact with each other.
On Tuesday, Dzurenda and a handful of guests from local businesses, government and nonprofits — who have donated money, masks and lunches — officially announced the opening. Hall said the program still needs plastic dividers, hand sanitizer and childsafe disinfectant.
Dzurenda said he hopes to be back to the programs’ usual 350 child enrollment sometime in July. Expecting social distancing regulations still to be in effect, he said program coordinators are “looking at converting conference rooms and doubling up on rooms for multiple ages. For example, using after-school rooms in the mornings for child care and in the afternoons for our after-school program.”
Coordinating the early childhood and afterschool programs while children are distance learning has added some new protocols:
Dzurenda said the staff has been advised to make sure those children who are participating in distance learning file their assignments with their teachers.
“We were told a lot of students are connecting online but the percentage of those turning in their homework is low,” he said. “So we’ve told our counselors to make sure it’s filed.”
Adiel Dominguez, a staffer who specializes in teaching art, said mornings will begin with breakfast and then move to online distance learning for those children in school.
“We connect with their teachers to make sure they are following their school schedule,” Dominguez said. “After they finish their homework, we’ll do arts and crafts or maybe a science project. Then we take them outside or into a game room where everyone gets a table and an educational board game ... with a counselor who keeps a safe distance away.”
Dominguez said meals are “a little tricky ... the kids like to share and that can’t be allowed.”
During the playground and gym breaks, balls and equipment are not shared by classes.
“When a group is out, Jason Calderon, our maintenance director, makes sure all the touch areas in the classroom are sprayed with a bleach and water combination and wiped down,” Dzurenda said. “When the children return from outside, everything in the playground is sprayed. Jason makes a fresh batch of bleach and water disinfectant every morning and leaves a spray bottle in every classroom.”
Dzurenda said Hall is also preparing for the fall when schools may be dividing classes into alternating days.
“We’re hoping to be a resource for those students on their off days,” he said. “We’d like to keep the online teaching burden off the parents.”
City Council President Aidee Nieves, who attended Tuesday’s event with Maria Valle, another council member, said having Hall’s programs back in service is a much needed respite for city residents.
“This opening is important for the neighborhood,” Nieves said. “Parents need to get back to work. But they need to know their children are being cared for in a safe place.
“These kids missed so much during the COVID-19 closures,” she said. “Now it’s time to bring some normalcy back into their lives.”