Community Centers Offer Space For Virtual Students

Max Cohan takes a look inside one of the community centers opened up for kids who need wifi, printers and a quiet place to work.

News at 10.

New information - virtual students now have 2 more resources this school year.

Two madison county community centers opened their doors to students today for kids who need wifi, printers, or just a quiet place to get their schoolwork done.

Waay 31's max cohan takes us inside the one at monrovia community center.

"student's i approached today did not want to appear on camera but told me that it was power outage that brought them to the center."

After power was out for more than 3 hours monday - 20 students took advantage of the services at the monrovia community center.

Both monrovia and madison crossroads community centers are now offering students a space to access the internet and complete school work in an air conditioned environment.

Madison county commissioner phil vandiver -- the man behind the project -- says he didn't expect to see many students on the first day.

Phil vandiver - madison county commissioner, district 4 "it's probably a good thing that we have a lot of students that have the capabilities that don't have to come up there, we're glad to offer this to the students that don't have it and we'll just see where it goes and what we need to do and work it out from there."

Both centers are equipped with high speed wifi, tables for students and printers to use if needed.

Vandiver says they have the potential to serve more than 70 students per center, but he doesn't believe there is that kind of need.

"i don't think we'll ever get that crowded, i think this is probably a 10 or 15 at the most that will come, but if they do, we're ready to handle it."

He said one thing to note is that students under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

Vandiver says he put the rule in place because with only one person staffing each location - the centers aren't set up to operate like a daycare service.

"so, if i have them controlling kids, nobody's watching the front of the center or everything else so we're gonna have to do this together.

It may not be what you want to do, but we're going to have to work together to provide this service."

Reporting in madison county, max cohan, waay 31 news.

Vandiver said the center managers will talk to students and parents to assess what their other needs are - and make adjustments based on their feedback.

Both centers are open from 7 a-m to 9 p-m every week day except wednesday.

On wednesdays