Hello Spark families,
It is exciting to be communicating with you and exciting to be planning a school year with your preschoolers. While our world, and our program, have undergone significant changes in the past few months, we have not changed our commitment to helping your little ones find joy and creativity in the preschool world. Our staff has a renewed enthusiasm and anticipation, especially since our last day with students was March 13.
All of this information will be fully explained during our virtual parent orientation, available on our website later in August, but we wanted to inform you of the most important changes ahead of time. Spark is following all state guidelines for reopening a childcare center. These guidelines have helped us plan for a safe opening the week of August 31.
- All adults entering the building will need to wear masks. Students are not required to wear masks, but can if that’s a parent’s preference.
- All staff and students will be temperature checked upon entering the building
- There will be no more than 9 students per class. Classes will not intermingle and teachers will stay with their own group in their own classrooms.
- Drop-off and pick-up will look a lot different this year; we are working on protocols to keep everyone as safe as possible. Possibilities include staggered start and end times; utilizing different entry points into the building and into classrooms; asking families as much as possible to limit the number of people coming in with each student; not monitoring parked cars in the drop off area as usual, etc. We will be doing soft starts for all classes this year to help everyone adjust to the changes and lessen separation anxiety.
- We will be cleaning and sanitizing ‘round the clock. Toys will not be shared between classrooms, only by the small class in each classroom.
- This year it is vitally important we have an emergency contact for your student who can be reached immediately if we have to make an illness or other phone call. We will ask you to put our phone number in your list of contacts so you or whomever will know to answer when we call, rather than letting an unfamiliar call go to voice mail.
Regarding paperwork:
All necessary forms are found on our website, www.sparkpreschool.com. They are under the “For the Parents” tab. Most children will only require the Child Enrollment Form and the Child Medical Form. We are asking returning families, as well as new families, to fill out the child enrollment form found there. We are not doing updating of forms this year. Every box/space in the child enrollment form needs to be filled in, even if not applicable (write N/A). As noted above, your child’s emergency contact(s) must be someone who can be reached immediately by phone and is local to Central Ohio and can be here quickly. This form can be filled out online and emailed to us. We need all paperwork by August 10 – either by email, fax or drive-through (see below).
Medical forms are required for all new students, by September 30. If you are a returning family, and have a form already on file that hasn’t expired over the summer, we will let you know when a new medical form needs to be submitted. If your child has a health condition that needs a medical care plan and/or medication form, you will be contacted in August about submitting those. Medical forms require a doctor’s signature and can be faxed or scanned and sent to our email, info@sparkpreschool.com.
We will have a drive-through paperwork drop-off on Tuesday, Aug. 4, from 10-11:30 a.m. You can pull to the rear of the church and there will be staff on hand to collect your paperwork through your car window. We will be collecting child enrollment forms, medical forms, and any other paperwork you need to give us.
First tuition payments and lump-sum payments are due September 1.
Please don’t hesitate to call or email with any questions or concerns. We truly believe this is going to be a great year for all of us at Spark. This is our tenth anniversary year and while we couldn’t have foreseen how it would transpire, we appreciate being refocused on what makes preschool fun for children – their relationships with peers and teachers. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to keep them safe, healthy and happy – and can’t wait til there are little people back in the building.
See you soon!
Linda Cochran and Amy Pressler, Directors
