Boys and Girls Club provides childcare for Oxnard Union High School District teachers

OXNARD, Calif.-- The Boys and Girls Club is providing childcare for all teachers at Oxnard Union High School District.

Ingrid Brennan is an English teacher at Rio Mesa High School. She, like so many other teachers, who now have to monitor her normal classroom as well as her own children.

“The Spring was a little rough,” said Brennan. “It was humbling as a teacher to fail completely at homeschooling your 2nd grader.”

“Imagine they are trying to balance the education of their own children with the education of our 2,400 students here,” said Mark Contreras, who is the principal at Rio Mesa High School. “That can be super challenging."

This time around there is some help. The Oxnard Union High School District partnered with The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme to provide childcare during school hours.

“We are offering this service completely free for all teachers,” said Andrew Peake, who is with the Boy and Girls Club of Greater Oxnard and Port Hueneme. “We want to make sure that they can concentrate on the most important thing which is their students.”

The program is available at every high school in the district, as well as Port Hueneme elementary schools. The program will run until schools reopen.

“I am very grateful and I know that there are so many people that do not have this,” said Brennan.

While Brennan teaches her high school classes, her daughters are in the library getting their work done.

“It is a little different, but I honestly like it a lot better because it is easier,” said Sadie Brennan, who is the daughter to Inrid Brennan. “At home there is a lot of people there using the exact same Wifi and it is not as strong as here so it is not as slow.”

Rio Mesa special education teacher Kathy Devera, says knowing her daughter is in the program is a huge relief.

“It is great to have other students here so she can also social and get work done,” said Devera.

Face masks and physical distancing are enforced, but kids can still interact safely.

"We expect a total of about 26 young children of our educators here to utilize our program within the next couple of weeks,” said Contreras.