TIPPECANOE COUNTY, Ind. (WLFI) -- One Tippecanoe County principal is helping bridge the gap for e-Learners. Students and parents are getting some extra support thanks to a partnership with River City Community Center.
"We got a lot of feedback from teachers, feedback from kids and parents that it's just hard, it's really hard," said Shannon Cauble, Mayflower Mill Elementary principal.
We're approaching a year since schools made a shift to remote learning in response to the Covid-19 pandemic but Principal Cauble said it hasn't gotten any easier.
"We have come a long way since March," said Cauble. "But one thing that's kind of stayed the same is that parents that were struggling in March, they're still struggling in January, and kids that were struggling in March are still struggling in January."
With Tippecanoe School Corporation starting the first two weeks of January under remote learning, Cauble wanted to provide a public space for students to get help with homework. She found River City Community Center was the perfect place to do it.
"We were really fortunate that we were able to have a partnership that we had just kind of briefly discussed in November and then make it happen," said Cauble.
Students can come in Monday through Friday from noon to 3 p.m. The program will end on Friday, Jan. 15 as in-person classes are scheduled to resume the following Tuesday, Jan. 19.
Terry Gilbert, director of the River City Community Center is also grateful for this partnership. He said this is a positive as they've faced their own challenges due to the pandemic.
"Just like most organizations, we had to pivot. Instead of being able to bring people in, we went to them," said Gilbert. "Education is one of our guiding principles. We want to see this place used as a way to uplift people and their journey."
Cauble said since it launched on Jan. 4 it's slowly seen more and more students trickle in.
"When I've talked to parents that have brought their kids in, they've just said thank you very much, thank you very much," said Cauble.
The center is mainly focusing on serving Mayflower Mill and Southwestern students because of its location in town. The program sees around 20 students in total throughout the day and Cauble said they're looking to stay around that number in order to keep kids socially distanced. She said she's looking into partnering with other community organizations in the future in hopes of expanding this program to more students.
