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ALSO COVERING ELMHURST, JACKSON HEIGHTS, LONG ISLAND CITY, MASPETH, MIDDLE VILLAGE, REGO PARK, SUNNYSIDE
Aug. 21-27, 2020
Glendale education nonprofi t reopens,
offering ‘COVID-19 friendly’ tutoring
BY ANGÉLICA ACEVEDO
The beginning of the school year is
right around the corner and Excalibur
Reading Program, a nonprofit tutoring
organization based in Glendale,
has reopened for in-person tutoring
sessions.
Excalibur, located at 80-17 78th
Ave., has been closed for in-person
sessions since March. After schools
closed, they adjusted to online tutoring
and reduced some of their fees for
families.
But now that the city is slowly reopening
and school reopening plans
start to take shape, they are offering
their services in-person — but
with some adjustments. They’ve designed
their programs and space for a
“COVID-19 friendly” environment.
They will be offering only two sessions
with two teachers and one student
at a time, with tables 8 feet apart.
All students, parents and teachers
are mandated to wear masks, wash
hands and make use of their table with
hand sanitizers. They are asking parents
to provide a notebook and pencils
for their children so that there is no
sharing in the room between students,
but their teachers may also provide
pencils.
Each teacher has a Chromebook
to help students go to their school’s
websites to procure assignments and
aid the children in their Google Classrooms
or other online materials. They
will be able to print out assignments
as well.
They are also offering online or
hybrid tutoring, if parents want their
teachers to work with their children
during school hours on Zoom or Google
Hangouts. If a student is in need of internet
support for after school, or during
online classes, their teachers can
be in the office to assist them.
Each session is $40 per hour and
$25 per half hour, according to their
website. If interested, parents are encouraged
to call their office.
Angelica Harris, founder of Excalibur
and award-winning published author,
said the organization was struggling
to make ends meet during the
months of lockdown, as their revenue
was cut severely but still had rent and
other bills to pay.
“After being closed for nearly four
months, revenue is very low. To be
able to have the donations to purchase
these items helped us to reopen sooner
than we thought. Thanks to so many
generous people in the community,
we received donations of up to $500,
and with those funds we were able to
purchase table shields, hand sanitizers,
masks and most importantly, a
CN520 Non-Contact Forehead Thermometer,”
said Harris. “Every day
when students come to their sessions,
they will be given a ‘WELLCHECK’ by
their certified teachers, before entering
the room.”
Read more on QNS.com.
A LASTING LEGACY
Queens lost a towering figure when Claire Shulman, the first woman to serve
as borough president, died on Sunday, Aug. 16, after battling lung cancer and
pancreatic cancer. See coverage on pages 6, 7 and 20. File photo
Vol. 8 No. 34 28 total pages
2021
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