By Carlissa Dennis

Oyler students with parents who work will soon have a new place to stay occupied and learn after school: Camp O Extended Day. 

Students who attend Camp O Extended Day can stay after school and receive help such as tutoring, and do other extracurriculars.  

“Students who participate in Camp O Extended Day will be allowed to stay after school to get support with assignments, and to have fun enrichment activities as well,” said Tiffaney Hamm, Oyler’s Enrichment Manager. 

“We have Girl Scouts, dance lessons, ballet, chess, sound discoveries, violin lessons- and so much more! There will be limited spots available.”

Registration and sign up for Camp O Extended Day started October 7th. This program is available for students in grades K-6, and runs Tuesday through Friday until 5 p.m. Parents can register here. 

Now, hybrid-learning is affecting typical programs and extracurricular activities, meaning that this program will have a very similar schedule as the hybrid school schedule. Students that attend hybrid school in Group A will attend this program on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and students that are in Group B will attend on Thursdays and Fridays. 

“We knew that the pandemic had really put a strain on our families and students for a variety of reasons,” Hamm said. 

Camp O Academy was started by the Community Learning Center Institute, along with other programs such as Camp O’s summer camp and the rest of the after school program at Oyler. The program was created as an option for working parents to have a place their child to go while they worked through this pandemic. Many students had working parents who were left looking for childcare options last-minute when the school decided to stay virtual longer than anticipated. 

“Oyler is a true sense of family,” Hamm said. She also said she knew that Oyler faculty needed to do whatever they could to help be part of the solution for those that needed them most. 

“We are in this together – and we knew that it was the right thing to do.”

Camp O Academy started on the first day of the 2020-21 school year: Aug. 24. The programming ran Monday-Friday, from 8:15 to 4:30 p.m. at two sites in the LPH Neighborhood. The last day of that program was Oct. 2.

From grades 1-5, 19 students attended and there was 94% attendance for them each day. Hamm said she is so appreciative of her fellow colleagues Ms. Jennfier, Ms. Allie, and of course, everyone else who has been involved in helping families during these tough times. 

This is such a great opportunity and Hamm highly suggests that Oyler students get involved. Now go sign up, support yourself and others!