Proud to create a covid-safe environment!

Our goal is to remain open as much as possible, while providing the safest environment we know how to create.  To that end, we appreciate our community's commitment to take Covid-19 seriously.  Just like we say to the children "WE CAN DO HARD THINGS"! We are so thankful to our parents, teachers and children for doing all the hard things that have kept each other safe!

Since the start of the pandemic, after a year and a half totally Covid-free at school,  we have only had one individual in our community test positive for Covid-19, with no spread to anyone else in the school (as a parent shared with us when we informed them about the positive case in our school...this Delta variant is a beast!). In response to Delta, we re-instituted many of the Covid policies that we had started to relax over the summer, which kept our community healthy up until just before Winter Break. Since the start of the Omicron spike, we have had a few community members test positive, and we remain committed to keeping our children healthy. We have rearranged our playground schedules so no classes share time outside to help with contact tracing and to minimize impact to multiple classes if we do have a positive case in our community.

Our families and teachers all sign a disclosure agreeing to wear masks and maintain social distancing measures outside of school, as well as letting us know if they have had a possible exposure and staying at home if that is the case. Having a shared understanding of how we all are living outside of school is the number one factor that has protected our SOWJS bubble!

We installed UVC lights in the HVAC system to continually clean the air.

Teachers are required to wear a mask inside the building and anytime they are within 6 feet of a child outdoors.

Preschool children over 2 years old are strongly encouraged to wear masks inside.

We have temporarily suspended our open-door policy - only teachers and children are invited inside the building. While drop-off and pick-up are still outdoors, our parents may come inside if they wish.

Morning drop-off means a health screening for each child and teacher, complete with temperature check, a squirt of hand sanitizer and a contactless sign-in process, led by a faculty or staff member in full PPE. 

Teachers accompany children into the building where they wash their hands before starting their day.

We spend as much time outdoors as possible; we have created two new playground areas to give the children as much outdoor time as possible and we have even rethought our day to incorporate singing outside only.

Everyone washes hands upon entering the school, every time we come in from outside, before and after eating, toileting, diapering, before and after sensory play, AND at least once an hour.

Each classroom has a medical grade air purifier with an M-13 filter that cleans the air down to .01 microns every 10-15 minutes.

Children have dedicated art and materials boxes to limit shared and communal supplies.

stearamine

We use our misting and fogging machines to disinfect the classrooms every time a class goes outside using a hospital/restaurant grade  quat solution - we remain bleach free!

Children are spaced as far apart as possible at rest time

When community spread is low, each class pods with one other class, mostly outside, and each pod remains separated; we don't blend the pods at any time during the day.

Dedicated teaching teams stay with their classes.

Because we know social distancing with young children is not always possible, classes are capped at 12 children at a time (8 in our infant class).

Parents send us a message through Brightwheel, our Parent Communication App, when they are in the parking lot and we walk the children out to meet their grown-ups at the front door.

We will close for professional disinfecting if we have a positive case of Covid-19 in our building. We will disinfect thoroughly before reopening, and the class that has the positive case will quarantine for 10 days from last exposure.

Any time we need to close a class or the school, we will pivot to a virtual model within 3 days for toddlers and older.

Our goal is always to remain open whenever possible and to reopen as soon as possible after a closure.

We will honor shelter-in place orders and recommendations by government leaders, both statewide and local.