WESTFIELD – With the Westfield Public School District beginning phase 2 of its reopening plan on Oct. 19, they teamed up with the Greater Westfield Boys and Girls Club and the Westfield YMCA to offer remote learning centers for students in grades K-8.

Superintendent of Schools Stefan Czaporowski explained that students from Kindergarten to second grade will be at the YMCA while students from third to eighth grade will be at the Boys and Girls Club.

“It only really accommodates up to eighth grade, our hope is that a high school student will be able to stay home on remote weeks without someone supervising them. We prioritized the younger students for that reason,” he said.

Czaporowski said the district only has funding until the end of the year to provide the learning centers for free.

“We’re using some of the reopening of schools grant funds, but those expire at the end of December. After that we’re hoping that there’s more grant funding so we can continue to offer it at no cost. The optimist in me would like to believe there’s some kind of treatment by 2021 so we won’t need this anymore,” he said.

Students will be broken up into classroom spaces at about a 13 to 1 student to adult ratio and will be able to use their Chromebooks that were provided by the district.

“The Boys and Girls Club actually did an upgrade to their Wi-Fi so that students will be able to be on the internet at the same time. That is a concern as well because if you don’t have the capacity, it’s like molasses when you’re trying to work,” Czaporowski said.

With a list of nearly 200 students initially interested in the remote learning centers, Czaporowski said it was difficult to organize the program.

“It was pretty difficult just trying to organize which students are interested so we’ve been collecting names and now the Boys and Girls Club is calling these families to see if they are still interested,” he said.

At the time of writing Czaporowski said there was still some space if families were interested in signing up for the program.

“We have 200 maximum, I think we’re close to that but what’s happening now is the majority of families are still interested but there are some who have already made other arrangements at this point so there could be some spots opening up,” he said.

Interested families can call the Boys and Girls Club at 562-2298 to sign up for the waiting list.

Czaporowski added that district staff is working directly with the Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA to offer as much help as possible.

“Our principals, assistant principals, and teachers are working with the Boys and Club staff, so they know what we’re working on and they know how to help the students along the way,” he said.

By returning students to a more in-person learning environment, Czaporowski said he hoped students would begin to feel more normalcy.

“I think they will feel a bit of normalcy. They’ll be with peers, and they will have assistance and someone to motivate them to be doing what they are supposed to. It’s going to be as much as a school environment as we can provide it’s just going to be at the YMCA and Boys and Girls Club,” he said.

Czaporowski added that he and the district’s staff were thankful that both organizations offered to be remote learning locations.

“It’s great that our community partners stepped up. We have a great working relationship with the Boys and Girls club and the YMCA already, so this just continues that trend and we really appreciate it,” he said.