Families scramble as school closures extend into smoky week

With schools closed across the region, tens of thousands of parents were forced to scramble on short notice to resolve child-care issues and find safe outlets for kids.|

Jasmine Caron probably could have found friends to watch her two children while she worked Tuesday, except she was already babysitting two friends’ children while their parents were out of town, and four kids seemed like a lot to hand over.

With schools around the region closed because of smoky, unhealthy air, the Santa Rosa mom had the kids pack up books, art materials and electronics, and head into the office with her, just for a while.

An assistant bookkeeper employed by a family friend, Caron planned to work only a short time, then take the kids out “to do something hopefully fun and active.” She had done the same thing Friday, when her own two children, ages 8 and 10, accompanied her to work before going home for a play date.

It will cut into her pay, but “I’m actually very, very lucky,” said Caron, 40. “I have a very flexible schedule, so I just had to come in and tie up some loose ends.”

With schools closed and worklife upended by the Camp fire 100 miles away in Butte County, Caron was among tens of thousands of Sonoma County parents forced to scramble Tuesday on short notice to resolve child care issues and find safe outlets for their children.

Most schools already had a three-day weekend in store because of Veterans Day when the fire broke out near the town of Paradise early Thursday morning, becoming the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in California history.

The skies since have been filled with noxious smoke for miles around, sending people indoors, canceling sporting and other outdoor events, closing schools and flooding enclosed recreational venues usually still slow until rainy weather sets in.

“This whole weekend was way busier than usual,” said Spencer Vogel, a manager at Cal Skate in Rohnert Park. “I’ve had a couple parents say they can’t watch any more movies inside, so they came here instead of that.”

Ashley Rueckert, a 33-year-old Santa Rosa mother to three young ones, was relieved schools were closed. She has asthma triggered by allergies, and when she stepped outside to do laundry Tuesday, she described feeling a tightness in her chest, a sore throat and as if she were breathing through a straw.

Before that, she hadn’t gone outside since Sunday, when her family trekked to the Veterans Memorial Building for Brick Palooza, a Lego festival.

“They were already kind of stir crazy at that point,” Rueckert said of her brood.

Her 6-year-old son has had headaches and a bad cough since then. She has a newborn at home and she’s currently on maternity leave from her job as a medical assistant.

“If I was working right now it would be a juggle,” she said.

Sonoma State University was one of the lone campuses that remained open Tuesday, and that put Aja Houle, 27-year-old mother of three, in a bind. Houle is a senior studying business and marketing. She has a job on campus and is nine months pregnant with her fourth child.

With the semester’s end and her due date approaching, she couldn’t miss class. Figuring out child care at the last minute was a plight.

“It kind of put me in a bad position,” Houle said. Her day care allowed her to bring in her three kids, ages 2, 6 and 7. Some of her co-workers on campus had their kids in the office.

“I know a lot of parents and students are upset,” she said.

With day-by-day decisions on school closures, the rest of the week looked like an equally daunting logistical challenge, she said.

“It’s honestly all up in the air and that’s a big problem. In my condition I don’t need to be stressed about this,” Houle said.

Rachel Gardea, whose daughter is a Windsor Creek third-grader, said she finds the whole situation vexing. As a business owner, she said, “I have it better than most.”

Friday, she brought her daughter to work at Gardeaux Wigs in Santa Rosa, got everyone going on the day, and then left. But after the Monday holiday, it never occurred to her the smoke would keep the schools closed again, so she was completely unprepared for the extended closure. Her neighbor, who has a little girl, stayed home in the morning and watched both girls for a few hours until Gardea’s mother, the customer service representative at the wig shop, could get away, pick up some craft supplies and take both girls.

“It’s definitely very inconvenient,” she said. “I’m trying to have the attitude that at least I’m very flexible.”

The issue was magnified for the region’s largest employers. Christina Cramer, the director of human resources for the County of Sonoma, said she was aware of numerous workers taking personal days to watch school-age children, and even a few bringing them into the office for brief periods while they figured out what to do during recent smoke days.

Cramer herself was telecommuting, her high school-age daughter and a fourth-grade son out of school for the day and “feeling very cooped up.”

“I’m very privileged with having a job where I can telecommute, and having generous benefits and paid time off,” she said. “I can see where it would be a hardship for a lot of folks.”

Caron said people are trying to help each other through this period of uncertainty, though “a lot of parents are definitely in a quandary.” School officials are in a tough spot, she said, wanting both to have students in class and keep them safe. Getting that balance right isn’t easy.

“It’s a horrible situation,” she said.

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