Little Rock School District is opening a third day camp Wednesday for children of local health care workers -- this one at Brady Elementary School, Superintendent Mike Poore said.
The Brady day camp will be available for up to 70 children of employees of the Arkansas Veterans Administration Hospital and the Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute, Poore said, although the number of children participating daily is expected to be about 40 or 50.
Brady is at 7915 W. Markham St. in Little Rock.
Additionally, the school district is opening the doors of the existing day camp at Terry Elementary, at 10800 Mara Lynn Road in west Little Rock, to employees of Arkansas Surgical Hospital in Maumelle.
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Terry is already serving families from the Arkansas Heart Hospital. The Terry camp is also able to serve as many as 70 children, but the typical number has been no more than 25, making it possible to add families from the Maumelle medical center, Poore said.
Pulaski Heights Elementary and Middle schools, at 401 N. Pine St., have hosted a day camp for the longest period. That program became available to to the employees of the nearby University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences shortly after Gov. Asa Hutchinson directed in mid-March that public school buildings statewide be closed as part of the effort to slow the spread of the contagious and potentially fatal covid-19.
The district days camps, staffed by district and hospital employees, are provided at no cost to the families. Teachers, teacher aides, nurses, security staff and food service workers are among the school district staffers at work at the camps.
The 6:30 a.m -to-7 p.m. daily program, which requires two shifts of staffing, could continue into July if needed, Poore has said.
The Bentonville School District in Northwest Arkansas is providing a similar service. That district started in March, opening three campuses for about 45 children -- from infants to 6th-graders -- of front-line medical service providers.
Metro on 05/12/2020