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School District of Palm Beach County decision doesn't only affect students, staff, parents

'This has been difficult for everybody'
Kid drawing on the ground
Posted at 10:13 PM, Jul 15, 2020
and last updated 2020-07-16 09:35:35-04

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — So many decisions are in the balance off of what the Palm Beach County School District decides on the coming school year. It's not clear what after-school programs will look like and some schools may not make it all together.

"We've been waiting for this decision and it's been coming, quite frankly, a little bit late for decisions to be made," Eric Roby, with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, said.

Roby said decisions had to be made surrounding the district's decision on what the new school year will look like.

"A normal school year, our clubs would be open roughly from 2 in the afternoon to 8 o'clock at night," he said.

That's the club's fallback plan. Distance learning would require another strategy.

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"It would be our goal to try and figure out a way to be able to be open during school hours and then also be open after school hours," he said.

Clubs could be open for 12 hours a day, which will require fundraising.

"This has been difficult for everybody," business owner Sydney Ross said.

Ross owns two Whiz Kidz learning centers, which continued to provide education and child care during this difficult time.

"The parents who do not get any assistance with their tuition, ok, we call them private pay, a lot of them are not coming in," she said. "So we're losing the full tuition for those children."

A lot of her kids in the summer are public school kids who get assistance from the Early Learning Coalition of Palm Beach County.

"It's a very bleak future and we're all trying to go day by day, staying positive and hoping for the best," she said. "But, unfortunately, hope can only go so far."