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Local CEO turns conference room into classroom for parents

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SAN DIEGO (KGTV) -- Kristin Elliott is CEO of Precision Engineering in Vista, a company that creates water quality sensors for oceans and lakes, "we sell these to universities around the world, work with Scripps Institution of Oceanography," Elliott described.

Her work is her passion but so is her team, so when the pandemic hit she said it was her goal not to layoff any employees, taking a pay cut so her team could stay paid.

"We wanted to save our team through this," she said. Then, there was the announcement kids would be returning to school online.

"We have this space that we're not gonna be utilizing because no one's having in-person conferences, we're all over zoom these days," turning the room into a classroom. "It's large enough to fit 3 or 4 kids and that's exactly the number of kids we have with our employees. We're going to have a little reading area where kids can switch places to relax and reset. All the things you can normally find in a classroom, a bookshelf with all the interests they might have." Elliott even went to great lengths, hiring an accredited teacher's assistance to help.

"It's definitely a relief. I know they were just thinking about homeschooling and working, trying to manage that. There's so many emotions involved and so much anxiety and stress, and my goal was to reduce that for our employees."

Elliott has followed all CDC protocols and guidelines for her 15 employees working in office, and she'll do the same when their kids come fall.

"We're still getting the room set up because we want to ensure social distancing between the children and the teacher. We're also bringing in the PPE that the CDC is requiring and kind of recommending for opening these."