Community centers in Waukegan are desperately trying to take in children affected by the ongoing teacher strike in the city, but many have reached capacity as workers continue to work overtime.
The strike has kept about 17,000 students from all of Waukegan’s public schools out of the classroom for the last three weeks.
“We don’t have homework to do, I can’t be in band, it’s not that fun,” said 12-year-old Thomas Evans Jr.
But with schools not in session, parents have had to find alternate places to take their children.
“We have doubled up on our staff to be able to accommodate having the youth here all day,” said Cesile Price, CEO of the Boys and Girls Club of Lake County.
About 1,200 teachers walked off the job over several issues, and salary and insurance remain the key sticking points. Talks have ramped up in recent days, and both sides met for about 10 hours.
Price says the strike has forced the “after school” program to be turned into a daycare for up to 125 students each day, putting them at full capacity.
“We’ve turned away easily more than 50 youths and we would love to be able to serve them,” she said.
Since the strike began, the club has been providing fun and educational activities as well as serving students breakfast, lunch and oftentimes a snack, and many of those meals were donated.
Local
“[The donations have] really helped,” said Price. “We alone couldn’t provide these wonderful meals.”
But despite the efforts of many in the community attempting to help the children, the students say they just want to go back to school.
“I don’t want to spend the school time in the summer,” said Waukegan fourth grader Christian Welch.
