Geneseo Village Board Hears Two Summer Recreation Program Proposals
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- Written by BECKY MCKEOWN
GENESEO — The Village of Geneseo Board of Trustees heard two separate proposals regarding the summer recreation, or “summer rec,” program at its meeting tonight.
First, Geneseo Central School teacher Jeff Rose presented how he would run the summer rec program and the changes he would make. Rose, who has eight years of experience working with summer rec programs in Irondequoit and Geneseo, said he’d like to remedy the program’s dwindling number of participants by creating a caring and welcoming environment.
While teaching, Rose said he’s heard kids say the program isn’t fun. To change this, Rose proposed more diverse activities, including different arts and crafts projects every day, as well as various outdoor activities. Rose also said he’d like to include non-competitive activities like charades and skits for kids to participate in.
Rose also proposed to allow children entering first grade through entering 10th grade into the program, which differs from the current ages of entering kindergarten through entering 6th grade. Rose said he wanted to bump up the age of the youngest kids so they’ll already have experience interacting with other children. He said the older children would be at the program because they wanted to be, not because they had to be. Rose said these kids would act as role models for the younger kids.
Rose also said he would like to change the time of the program to end an hour early at noon. He also expressed the opinion that the program’s staff should be from Geneseo and Groveland to establish a better community connection. The program would still take place at Highland Park, he said.
To help increase the number of children who actually attend the program, Rose said he would enlist the help of his fellow teachers to spread the word about the program and to help send home applications. He would also advertise the program on the school announcements. Rose said he would also set up a website for the program so parents could access extra forms, see field trip updates and contact him. The website would also be linked on the Geneseo Central School website so parents could easily find it.
All counselors would need at least three non-family references in order to work for the program. Children would either be bused to and from the program, or dropped off and picked up by a parent or established guardian. All kids would be signed in and out.
After Rose’s presentation, Erik Fix from the YMCA shared his proposal on furthering the current summer rec program, which the YMCA took over four years ago.
Fix said the program has been growing over the past years in terms of implementation. He said the program would stay at its current 6-week length, but would start the week of July 9th instead of the 4th. It would also still run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and keep an additional hour before and after the program for $1 more.
Fix went on to say the YMCA registers the program as a certified day camp with the New York State Department of Health, which checks the program before it begins and during its progress. All children in the program must register, fill out health forms and sign a waiver so they can play on inflatables and have their photo featured on the YMCA website. All of the programs counselors go through background checks, go through a two-day training session and are over 18.
Fix said the goal of the program is to teach kids life skills, how to work in a team and how to be role models.
The Board decided they would talk over both proposals during an executive session at a later date.
