San Juan Bautista
– Fifteen-year-old Chelsey Foster spends an hour at the San Juan
Bautista Library each day so she can use the Internet. She also
takes a summer school class at Anzar High School, where she’ll be a
sophomore in the fall. But she said they don’t really fill her
time.
San Juan Bautista – Fifteen-year-old Chelsey Foster spends an hour at the San Juan Bautista Library each day so she can use the Internet. She also takes a summer school class at Anzar High School, where she’ll be a sophomore in the fall. But she said they don’t really fill her time.
Most of her day she spends just hanging out with friends.
“There’s not really a lot to do. We just hang out in town and walk around,” she said. “We always have to go out of town to do fun stuff.”
For kids, summer means freedom from school and homework. In a small town like San Juan Bautista, that freedom can be paired with inevitable boredom.
While the under-18 crowd in San Juan Bautista always has struggled to find activities to fill summer days, this year there are no summer activities offered in the city, compounding the problem.
City Manager Jan McClintock said the lack of summer programs has caused concern among officials.
“We really need to have some recreation programs for our kids over the summer,” McClintock said. “It’s a major concern for us because if kids don’t have something to do, they will find something to do.”
The YMCA, which typically offers a summer program in the Mission City, did not come this year because of changes in administration and a staffing shortage.
“We were unable to provide an enrichment camp for them this year, which is sad because there really is a need for it,” YMCA Program Coordinator Nicole Hartshorn said. “We just didn’t have the manpower to do it.”
The city, which has not had a recreation department for several years, used to run a summer program through grant funding. But the grants since then have run out, and the city has no money of its own to spend on recreation, McClintock said.
Because of budget cuts, the San Juan Bautista Library also reduced its hours, opening each day at 1pm. Dee Dee Hanania, a library assistant, said it is constantly full of children who want to use the computers.
“There were 19 people waiting at the door (today),” Hanania said. “That’s the sad part about the hours getting cut back: There’s nothing else going on. The (kids) need a place to be.”
The lack of programs in San Juan Bautista, has caused many parents to take their kids out of town for activities. Hartshorn said there are some San Juan Bautista children in the Hollister-based YMCA program, but the vast majority are from Hollister.
“It’s minimal because the parents have a hard time getting over here. It’s very inconvenient for them,” Hartshorn said.
McClintock said she worries most parents are simply opting to leave their children alone.
“We’re starting to have issues with skateboards and razor scooters,” she said. “A lot of kids are latchkey over the summer because the parents have to work. It’s a real concern for us.”
McClintock said she hopes the YMCA will come back next year and offer summer enrichment. The city is also working on raising funds for future programs.
