Educare Springfield embraces remote learning to support children, families during coronavirus pandemic

SPRINGFIELD — For less than three months this year, children spent their days learning and playing at Educare Springfield, a new $14.4 million early childhood education center on Hickory Street in Springfield. Then the coronavirus pandemic shut down much of the state and educational facilities along with it.

“We opened our doors on Jan. 2 and invited 141 beautiful children into this brand-new facility,” said Nikki Burnett, executive director of Educare Springfield. “During that time our staff and children and families had really settled in and we had such a beautiful rhythm, and that has really been disrupted for obvious reasons.”

In addition to seven classrooms for infants and toddlers and five prekindergarten classrooms, the center has conference rooms for community and parents’ meetings as well as a laundry room, a sanitizer for children’s toys, outdoor spaces with toddler-sized equipment, mini-bathroom stalls and sinks. Most of those rooms remain empty as the pandemic has switched education to a mostly remote model across the state.

“When we closed we thought it would be for a week, a couple of weeks or maybe a month, and it’s been nearly eight months,” said Burnett, who has been working from home since March.

Located on land donated by Springfield College and adjacent to Elias Brookings School, Educare Springfield is the 24th in a network of full-day, year-round schools. The Educare Learning Network began in 2000 when Start Early (formerly known as the Ounce) developed the first Educare school to serve the children and families rebuilding their community after the demolition of the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest public housing developments in Chicago. Since then, the Educare Learning Network has partnered with diverse communities and early childhood champions across the country to build a national network of 25 birth-through-age 5 schools and improve access to high-quality early education across the country.

The Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation is the lead partner for Educare Springfield, which is operated by the federally funded Holyoke-Chicopee-Springfield Head Start.

When the facility was forced to close in March, staff quickly transitioned into a remote model and began to work on ways to support families during a scary and uncertain time.

“We became even more aware of the inequities and disparities that a lot of our children and families were facing on a day-to-day basis,” Burnett said. “When you took out a safe place for them to go every day, and took out that they were able to get healthy food for two meals and a snack every day, you really started to see the need. We provided diapers and wipes, and disability and mental health and social services. When that was all taken away, we had to do a lot of quick pivoting.”

Burnett credits Head Start for having a lot of the systems in place that helped Educare Springfield support families.

“We had to devise a plan in which to help our families and we had to do it very quickly, because when you are talking about food insecurity and safety and services there is not a lot of time to have meetings to figure it out,” she said.

When Educare staff transitioned to remote learning, they found even more obstacles for the families they serve.

“We found that many of the families didn’t have the basic learning materials to be able to engage in the virtual model,” Burnett said. “We worked on trying to get devices to the families and staff. I also went on a mini campaign to secure grants and donations for crayons and notebooks and other supplies. We were able to send home enrichment boxes for all 141 of our children.”

The staff also held various socially distanced activities for students in the Educare parking lot, including a “reverse parade” where staff decorated their cars and families could drive through and see the teachers.

“They were able to wave and scream from the cars at their teachers. We found that children were really missing their teachers,” Burnett said.

This summer the center opened for several families in desperate need of child care in order to get to back to work.

Currently there are three classes open at Educare and nine other classes are remote. There are 28 students and 12 teaching staff. Normally there are 53 people on staff including teachers, family service coordinators, the receptionist and administrative staff.

“For those classrooms we are following all of the guidelines to ensure everyone is safe,” said Nara Sivalingam, the school director. “This is new to everybody, to the teaching staff and the kids.”

Sivalingam said each morning begins with parents dropping of their child during a designated time slot. Once they arrive, parents call their child’s teacher, who comes out and does a visual inspection of the child as well as going over a health checklist that includes questions about sore throats, coughs and fevers.

“Even if a family has two children at Educare they have to call the teachers for each child and they each go through the checklist before they are allowed inside,” she said.

Once inside, the preschoolers and staff must wear masks. The teachers are even training the toddlers to wear masks.

“They will only have them on for a few minutes, but it’s really to get them ready for when they have to wear them in preschool,” Sivalingam said.

The seating in the classrooms is socially distanced and each child is assigned their own box of crayons, paper and pencils, and other learning tools. There is also a box for used toys that gets cleaned at the end of every day.

“We have all gotten used to the routines and the schedules. They are just happy to be here and to interact with their friends and teachers,” Sivalingam said.

Nicole Blaise is the community engagement director for Holyoke-Chicopee-Springfield Head Start. She said while it has been difficult to see the facility closed, the most important thing is providing services for children wherever they are.

“We are trying to navigate through this crazy time and trying to do the right thing for our children, our staff and the community,” she said. “We are still doing great things, whether it’s remote or in person, and as we move forward we are just making sure we can still provide the best services to the kids and families in Educare, however that looks.”

One of the biggest challenges, Sivalingam said, has been communication with people who are not in the building every day. Blaise said it has been a transitional period of adjusting to working from home for most of the staff.

“We are committed to all being on the same page and moving forward as we digest new information, but it can be a lot to manage,” Blaise said. “That building was full of staff and of children and now we have this remote team and in-person team, and trying to keep everybody connected and included can sometimes be very difficult.”

The Educare Springfield team remains hopeful that the building will once again be filled with the sounds of children laughing and playing.

“My hope is that based on how well we have been doing with the classrooms we have open, that we can open more classrooms, because I think the kids need that interaction,” Sivalingam said. “The teachers have been doing a great job of keeping the kids safe and engaged and we want to see children in the building again.”

Related Content:

• EduCare Springfield prepares to open state-of-the-art early childhood center
• Educare Springfield, a $14.4 million investment in Springfield’s children and families
• Educare Springfield opens on Hickory Street