Hi Families,
First and foremost, I wanted to extend a huge thank you to all of you who were able to keep your children at home during this unpredictable time. Over 50% of our families kept their children home today. This goes a long way to support the State’s and Town’s social distancing measures. I have no doubt you have contributed in a very real way to help slow the progression of this virus. It is no exaggeration to say that your collective efforts could very well be life-saving for the high-risk individuals within our broader community. In addition, by keeping the number of children in the building low, we were able to spread the children out more, and spend additional time cleaning and disinfecting the building.
We remain exceptionally vigilant in excluding children, staff, or visitors with any respiratory symptoms. As a reminder, per the updated guidance from the New York State Office of Family and Child Services:
1. If your child is experiencing any respiratory illness symptoms (cough, fever, shortness of breath, etc) they may not enter the Sunshine Starts building. We cannot stress this enough if your child is experiencing even mild respiratory illness symptoms we are not able to provide care for them. Please make arrangements to be able to pick your child up within 1 hour if they develop any symptoms during the day. Furthermore, if anyone in your household is experiencing any similar symptoms, please keep your child at home.
2. The school district remains closed and therefore, we will not be able to provide all-day care for school-age children tomorrow (Friday). If we were to do otherwise, we would severely undermine the carefully considered actions of the school district. If you have both school-age and preschool children please consider keeping them both home.
3. If you have had contact with any person known to have COVID-19 or a person who is under investigation for possible COVID-19 exposure, or you or anyone in your family is under quarantine, you may not enter the Sunshine Starts building.
4. If you have traveled in the last 14 days to China, Iran, Italy South Korea or Japan, you may not enter the Sunshine Starts building.
As you may or may not be aware, the town has experienced its first confirmed case of Covid-19. All of the person’s contacts are being tested. We are in contact with local officials and have not been made aware of any connection between this individual and the school. If you have been contacted by health officials regarding possible contact with this individual please let us know as soon as possible.
Lastly, I wanted to remind everyone that we have installed a hand sanitizer dispenser next to the palm scanner. I would ask everyone to please use the hand sanitizer as you are walking into the building. There is a hand sanitizer dispenser on the inside of the main door as well.
While these are difficult and stressful times, I am encouraged by how our Sunshine Start community has come together. I know it is difficult to keep kids home, but by doing so we can help protect the vulnerable, high-risk individuals in our community. In consultation with local and state health officials, we will continue to do our very best to provide care for our families.
Again, thank you for your support!
