Local dentist office putting a spin on child care so employees can get back to work

Right now, the world is changing and local businesses are having to learn to adapt. One of the biggest changes and challenges is parents learning to juggle work and virtual schooling.

With the stay-at-home order lifted and many people getting back to working in-person, the parents who work at CJ Henley DMD in Mirmar were desperate for child care.

“With schools closed, and after-school programs closed, we really were in a bind,” Dr. C.J. Henley said. “Jodi, our office manager, had this great idea of bringing Nina in, and it’s just been fantastic.“

Ms. Nina Mays is a fourth-grade math and science teacher in Duval County. She is now teaching four days a week out of a dental office.

“I never pictured myself doing something like this,” Mays said.

Mays teaches kids from kindergarten to eighth grade, along with her 40 fourth-graders virtually. Action News Jax reporter Meghan Moriarty got an exclusive look at how the classroom operates.

“We get here first thing in the morning, and usually in the mornings they have their live chats that they all have to get on with their teachers. I have mine as well,“ Mays said. “We have a science lesson, like experiments, we like to do. We come outside and we do some physical activity.“

They also do arts and crafts and cooking on top of their regular school work. For now, this might be the new norm.

“There is still debate -- from what I understand -- whether or not schools will open up in the fall, so realistically we could be doing this indefinitely,“ Dr. Henley said. He hopes that other companies will think about doing something similar. “To everybody else out there, it’s possible and I think that it can be done safely.“

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