MLV COVID-19 UPDATES & SURVEY
May 15, 2020
We understand many of you are itching to have your children back at My Little Village. We are hoping and working towards being able to open on July 6 for camp. We put together a survey to gauge your desire to get back to it versus all of our safety concerns. At the bottom of this page, there is a link to a CNN article about opening preschools that really covers it from all angles. This might help you think through any concerns.
With the understanding that in order for the economy to get back on track we need to open the schools, The CDC recently released recommendations for safely running schools during this epidemic. We will definitely start with these reccomendations and anything else we deem necessary. The document is quite extensive. Here are some of the recommendations as well as some solutions we are considering.
1. Daily health checks with temperature taking.
2. Frequent hand washing and hand sanitizer for all students and staff as they enter and exit.
3. Childcare providers will wear masks.
4. Staggered pick up and drop off through separate doors. No adults in classrooms (possibly school) except for teachers.
5. Same groups of children and teachers each day. No interclass play, limited shared materials.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has indicated he will open schools as part of the last/4th phase based on certain criteria. For NYC, Phase 1 is expected to start in June. Typically, we follow NY public schools, but in this case, if possible and if families are comfortable, we may open earlier. Of course, we are paying close attention to the latest developments in terms of the inflammatory disease that affects children that may be related to COVID-19. What we are hearing is that this will most likely not affect the majority of our population, children under the age of 5.
When our leaders talk of opening schools, they’re not really talking about schools like ours. With our age population, size, layout and small, responsible community, there are safety precautions we can take that cannot be duplicated by other institutions. For example, we plan to designate a specific bathroom or sink and stall for each classroom and each classroom’s teachers. Also, with our many access points, we can determine specific entry points for certain classrooms, create social distance areas for waiting, and stagger pick-up and drop-off times.
We want to re-open MLV. We want to do it for our families, we want to do it for our staff, and we want to do it for the health of our business. With that said, your children’s and our safety will remain our top priority. If we open the school, we will continue to put safety first and will remain firm and diligent until the threat has passed.
Please take a moment to take our short survey. We will keep you posted of the results and anything we learn in the interim.