NKY church offering daycare services to help working parents

CAMPBELL COUNTY, Ky. (FOX19) - A Northern Kentucky church is providing daycare services to help alleviate the strain on working parents whose children will be spending more time than normal at home this year.

When Campbell County Schools returns to in-person learning, its rotational A/B hybrid schedule will ensure at least some of its students will be learning remotely all the time.

To make matters more difficult, the Board of Education voted Wednesday to push back classes until Sept. 14. In-person learning won’t begin until two weeks later.

Teachers who are also parents, like Riley Elementary School teacher Esther Warnick, face the same predicament.

“There’s three of us that teach fifth grade,” Warnick said, “and all three of us are in the same boat.”

Then she heard Plum Creek Christian Church would be taking in kids for daycare.

“I started crying,” she said. “It was such a relief.”

Pastor Jared Perkins came up with the idea to take in 30 kids on Mondays and Tuesdays and a different set of 30 kids on Thursdays and Fridays, thus to complement the rotational schedules schools are adopting.

As for Wednesday? “Unfortunately you’re going to be on your own while we’re sanitizing and setting up for the next group to come in,” he explained.

Retired teachers will be on hand to keep track of the kids, Perkins says.

Other safety measures include a camera that reads body temperature when the kids walk in the door. And if the kids aren’t wearing a mask, the camera system reminds them.

Masks will be available for the kids, as will hand sanitizer at stations throughout the church, and the desks have plastic dividers.

“We’re always taking the strictest guidelines to keep the kids as safe as possible,” Perkins said.

The kids will get breakfast, lunch and a snack free of charge.

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