Pablo Center Announce Pablo Center Learning Pods

Pablo Center at the Confluence announces the launch of the learning support program, Pablo Center Learning Pods. The newly instituted program offers a safe, socially distanced space for students grades 6-12 to work on school-provided curriculum during the virtual learning portion of their educational week. Pablo Center Learning Pods were created to ease the stress on parents balancing work and their children’s education as they return to school in this fall in a hybrid format.

Pablo Center Learning Pods offer a safe and supportive environment for students to progress through their virtual learning curriculum provided by their individual schools. Program staff will be there to support, guide, and supervise students as they work through the curriculum.  A separate space will be made available for students to meet virtually 1:1 with their teachers, counselors, and other school support as needed.

Executive Director Jason Jon Anderson said, “As every parent and school district bravely faces the uncertainty of the fall term, we want to ensure that consistent, safe, clean instructional space are not challenges for a students’ virtual learning days.  With our state-of-the-art facility, dedicated staff, and unique building partnerships we are excited to expand upon our previous instructional offerings to deliver additional full day programs that we believe will help provide parents and children alike a much needed option.  Our large rehearsal and meeting room facilities have the instructional technology as well as space to serve as the perfect oversized learning environments needed for this offering.”

In addition to school-provided curriculum, students will participate in unique experiences within STEAM which stands for science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics.  Planned activities include art and design workshops, theatre sound and lighting labs, additive manufacturing seminars, LEGO® robotics programming, recording studio seminars, and more. These additional activities will build on what students are learning in school and will be tailored to the general interests of the group.

Community Outreach and Workforce Development Manager Mike Lee who coordinates the program spoke about the extracurricular programming saying, “We are excited to utilize our internal expertise, resources, and outside network to offer a variety of unique experiences and workshops to the students in the program.  One day they might be building and programming LEGO® robotics and the next day they might be participating in a lighting design workshop or designing their own t-shirt.“

The health and safety the staff, students, and community remain the top priority for Pablo Center. In accordance to CDC and Eau Claire City/County Health Department recommendations, each student will have their own socially distanced workspace and be required to wear a face mask at all times.

Two programming options are available based on local area school districts in-school schedule. Students can either attend Monday and Tuesday or Thursday and Friday with the option of adding on Wednesday, based on enrollment availability. The program will run from 8:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. with drop-off in the morning from 7:30 – 8:00 a.m. and pick-up from 4:00 – 4:30 p.m. Students will be separated into similar aged cohorts and placed in classes with a maximum of 15 students.  Each classroom will be led by two facilitators. The program is $40 per day, charged on a monthly basis with a total enrollment of 120 students across all sessions.  The first-round of registration begins Friday, August 14 with open registration for the first 40 spots.  Upon meeting the scheduling needs of those who registered first, a second round of registration will open on Monday, August 24.  In keeping with their mission to expand access to the arts and Pablo Center programming, Pablo Center is providing scholarships for up to 20 spaces within each session, 40 total, to families experiencing financial hardship. To learn more, visit www.pablocenter.org/learn/learning-pods.