OCEAN CITY — Worcester County’s relatively new method of cutting back on paper announcements for school children is apparently falling short of the Ocean City Recreation and Parks Department’s expectations, prompting a debate about why the town is participating in the first place.
Last November, in an effort to eliminate many of the paper announcements and flyers stuffed into backpacks and folders, Worcester County Public Schools converted to a digital delivery system called Peach Jar as a means to distribute information about school happenings and events, programs, sports camps and other information distributed by community groups.
The Ocean City Recreation and Parks Department signed on to participate in the county’s Peach Jar program as a means to get information out about the many summer camps and other activities it offers to school kids all over Worcester, but thus far it appears to be falling short of the goal. During a Recreation and Parks Department budget work session this month, Recreation Superintendent Kate Gaddis told the Mayor and Council the department was having second thoughts about its involvement.
“It’s not really living up to our expectations,” she said. “It’s only the first year of the program and it hasn’t even been a full school year, but we get the stats from Peach Jar about how many of our flyers are getting opened and I do feel it’s kind of off to a slow start.”
With the clock now ticking on summer, Gaddis said Ocean City Recreation and Parks wanted to revert to the paper flyer distribution system for its many camps and other offerings.
“Because we feel it’s off to a slow start, they have given us permission to actually put flyers back in backpacks for our camps this summer,” she said. “I am very concerned that all of the children, especially those whose families don’t have a computer or access to a computer aren’t getting the information. I really want to make sure the information is getting to all of the kids so everyone has an equal opportunity to participate in our programs.”
Gaddis said beyond Ocean City’s financial commitment to the Peach Jar program, she had concerns about some school kids and their families across Worcester missing out on some of the extensive summer programs offered in the resort.
“We just want to make sure the kids have the opportunity to be busy and safe and active this summer and throughout the year,” she said. “Hopefully, they have a little better plan for next year.”
While acknowledging it was only the first year for the program, Councilmember Mary Knight questioned why Worcester County had to go to an outside source to create an online method of disseminating information.
“I wonder why Worcester County had to subcontract this out,” she said. “They have a Board of Education page and IT people. That’s another $1,000 we can put in our tax differential request that we shouldn’t have to pay.”
Knight and the council agreed the department should move forward with distributing paper flyers and revisit its commitment to Peach Jar next year.
“To me, this is something we could have done,” she said. “You all do stuff online yourselves. They’re charging us $1,000 because they couldn’t do it internally.”