Many parents of young children say in the current recession they are struggling to figure out where their kids will spend their time once school closes next month.
Several new parents have looked at their financial options and decided among local recreation programs, full-service summer camps, or letting their kids stay home.
Making a summer decision
A Coles Street couple, Pam Andes and Darren Phillips, have enrolled their 5-year-old son Aris into a summer Taekwondo camp at the JC Taekwondo Academy on Newark Avenue. They also have a 1-year-old son, Sean.
Andes is a student at New Jersey City University and Darren Phillips is a freelance graphic designer. Phillips said money was a factor for him and his wife, with prices for various camps and programs starting at $250 a week.
The Taekwondo summer program runs from July 6 to Aug. 28, ranges in price from $1,599 to $1,999, and offers not just martial arts training but also field trips and other recreational activities.
“They are pretty expensive,” Phillips said. “But we had to find something for Aris to do this summer, because the old days of getting a babysitter and having the kids watch TV all day are not a reality these days.”
Phillips said what helped make the decision easier was that Aris had been taking classes at the Taekwondo Academy, so he was familiar with the program.
Andes said she noticed some competition among downtown parents to get their children into summer camps and schools as early as possible. She also pointed out there is a “dearth” of quality summer programs that are affordable.
“I think by April, everybody was already starting to look around for places to put their kids in,” Andes said. “If you don’t sign up by that point, your options are pretty limited.”
A ‘nervous breakdown’
Shelley Skinner understands what Andes and Phillips are dealing with. Skinner is one of the founders of Jersey City Families for Better Schools, an education reform group that has its own internet discussion forum on Yahoo (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jcschools/). A frequent topic for parents in recent weeks has been finding an affordable summer camp.
Skinner is also the director of development and outreach at the Learning Community Charter School on Canal Street in downtown Jersey City. Her husband is an art director for the food delivery company Fresh Direct.
Skinner and her husband signed up their 6-year-old daughter Ella into Camp Liberty, the arts -oriented summer camp run by the Jersey City Educational Arts Team at their site in Liberty State Park, for eight weeks (June 29 to Aug. 21). The cost is $250 per two-week session for Jersey City residents and $300 for out-of-town residents. The couple signed up in late March when applications were first available for the camp.
“I knew that was where she was going to go from the beginning,” said Skinner, who lives with her husband, daughter, and two-and-a-half year-old son in the Hamilton Park area. Skinner had enrolled her daughter last summer in Camp Kadimah, a camp run by the Bayonne Jewish Community Center. However, Skinner joked that she and her husband would both have had a “nervous breakdown” if they had to drive their daughter to and from Bayonne again as well as pay for the cost of Camp Kadimah.
The price of fun
Nancy Rossi oversees the summer programs for the Stevens Cooperative School, which has campuses in Jersey City’s Newport community and on Hoboken’s west side. The school operates summer camps at both campuses for grades K-5 from June 29 to Aug. 14. The camps cost $400 per week with the promise of swimming, yoga and computer animation classes.
The prices have gone up from last year’s $375 per week, but Rossi said there has been an increase in enrollment from 250 in 2008 to 275 so far this year, with enrollment still open to the public as of last week.
Rossi said the increase came largely from well-to-do parents deciding to stay local and frugal.
“Parents who send their kids to big, more expensive suburban camps like Ramapo and Deerkill decided to put their children in our camp or other local camps,” Rossi said.
The Garden Preschool Cooperative, located on the second floor of the old St. Francis’ Hospital building on McWilliams Place in downtown Jersey City, runs a nine-week summer program for children ages 3 through 5 starting in June and ending in August, with four two-week intervals and a one-week session. The cost is $225 per week.
Sejal Patel, who teaches during the school year with fellow teacher Sam Pesin, is the head teacher for the summer program with help from an assistant. Patel said the school, which only has 18 students from ages 3 to 5 during the school year, only allows 16 kids during the summer.
“It was weird, because you would think with the economy, we would have a good amount of openings for the different sessions,” Patel said. “Instead, this year most of our sessions are booked, with a few openings in just two of them.”
Ricardo Kaulessar can be reached at rkaulessar@hudsonrreporter.com.