| Health and Safety Plan for South Hills dated 7/17/20 Amended 10/7/20 |
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Parents and Staff,
South Hills Child Development Center Inc. has added two sentences to our Health and Safety Plan, dated July 17, 2020. On page 8, the following sentence has been added to the Social Distancing section: During afternoon PreK Enrichment classes for our full day 4 year old and older students, children will be mixed with a maximum of four children from another pod for one/half day per week (11:30am-5:30pm). We have also added the following to the list of items to bring for your child’s use (See page 16): An old cloth adult t-shirt (for use as a paint shirt) clearly labeled with your child's first and last name. Thank you for reviewing this important amendment to the Health and Safety Plan dated July 17, 2020. You can download a copy of the updated plan using the link above. When you sign the Acknowledgment Documentation (Included in the Health and Safety Plan), you indicate that you have reviewed these amendments. Thank you, ♡ Ms Connie
July 17, 2020
Parents, Above is the official Health and Safety Plan for South Hills Child Development Center Inc dated July 17, 2020. All current and incoming parents/ guardians should review this plan carefully and complete the required documents included within the PDF to submit upon their return to the school. This plan dated July 17, 2020 will be uploaded to all South Hills’ families via the parents’ Drop Box folders, emailed to all current families, distributed as a paper copy in each child’s Take Home Folder, and posted on the home page of the South Hills website www.shills.info. This plan supersedes the Reopening Plan dated May 17, 2020 which addressed the May 26, 2020 reopening of South Hills following our mandated closure.
May 17, 2020
Parents, South Hills Child Development Center Inc. is set to re-open on Tuesday, May 26. Our official Reopening Plan dated May 17, 2020 is downloadable ABOVE as a PDF. Please read this document carefully! The Reopening Plan dated May 17, 2020 highlights our safety procedures during Phase 2 of the Pennsylvania reopening plan. Amendments to this plan will be released as Covid-19 developments are announced in the coming weeks and months. On Wednesday or Thursday of this week, you will be contacted by phone to discuss how you choose to proceed with enrollment. New students will receive details regarding orientation. If you are currently enrolled in the Spring 2020 term (ending FRIDAY, JUNE 12), your options are as follows:
If you are registered for Full Day Preschool, Kindergarten, or School-Age beginning Summer 2020 (starting MONDAY, JUNE 15), your options are as follows:
IMPORTANT: If you choose to withdraw your child for the summer term, you are also forfeiting your enrollment for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year (Not applicable to School-Age students). If you hope to eventually return to us, we can keep your child on our waiting list. However, we must fill any vacant spots and cannot guarantee that an opening will be available or which classroom will be available for your child. Additional updates below:
ღ Ms Connie May 8, 2020
Parents, Updates this week are as follows: MEETING IDS + PASSWORDS ARE CHANGING!
CONFERENCES
RE-OPENING
INVOICING
MOTHER’S DAY GIFT
Happy Mother’s Day! ♥ Ms Connie May 1, 2020
Parents, Here are your weekly COVID notices and updates: RE-OPENING There has been a change in plans for reopening South Hills. As Governor Wolf has approved reopening on May 8, I had hoped to reopen on the 11th. While there will be no regulation changes made by DHS or PDE regarding the reopening of Early Childhood programs, there is a myriad of suggested federal and state guidance regarding safety, social distancing, and cleaning as it pertains to caring for young children. On May 6th, I am scheduled to attend a training regarding procedures to safely reopen South Hills. Given the short timeframe, I don’t feel confident that I will be able to create our final plan, train the entire staff, and be fully prepared to implement the plan and reopen on May 8 or 11. Therefore, opening on Tuesday, May 26 seems more sensible at the moment. Half day, Full day, and Kindergarten students (now called School Age students as Summer Camp begins) will all be encouraged to attend that week. The Red/Orange am classes will have their school year extended to May 29. Unfortunately, they will only have two days with us, but we hope to make it meaningful and have some closure to the year! I will continue to keep you updated regarding this reopening date, and you will be well informed of any practices, requirements, routines, etc. As of now, key dates for May are as follows:
YOUR COMMENTS & CONCERNS I am aware that many parents feel that May is too early to reopen. Many others indicate they feel this is too late. I highly value and appreciate all of your thoughts and concerns. I know I cannot please everyone; I can only make my decision based on the government directives and organizations such as Department of Public Health, CDC, AAOP, ECELS, PA KEYs and other Early Childhood programs. Your continued support is important to me and I will continue to actively monitor the situation to ensure we re-open with your children and our staff’s health as my top priority. TEACHER APPRECIATION WEEK Teacher Appreciation Week is next week--May 4-8. Never have my staff deserved appreciation more than now! Please feel free to send a note of gratitude to the teachers through our school address—3808 Caughey Rd, Erie PA 16506 and I will be sure they receive it. Any and all kind words, especially accompanied with your child’s precious art work, is always the best gift... JAY AND MONA KANG ART SHOW Your child/ren worked with such imagination to create stunning works of art for the Jay and Mona Kang Art Show to benefit the Barber National Institute. Sadly, the show was canceled due to Covid-19 but will now take place as an online show. I will soon send notification regarding the dates and website for this show—patrons will be able to view artwork online for purchase. Curbside pickup will be arranged at the Barber Institute! When the show is online, please check to view the wonderful artwork your children contributed and perhaps make a purchase yourself! MAY INVOICES Dylan will send May invoices today. For some of you, this is your last full month with us. Please be sure to check for any past invoices not paid in full. You can email Dylan directly (or reply directly to your May invoice) to request a final statement for the Spring term. To confirm: During the time of our closure (beginning March 17) we respectfully ask that you pay what you can, if you can, to keep South Hills from depleting our limited funds. We know times are hard; we are your South Hills Family and it is your children who come first here—please keep them learning and growing during this time, regardless of payment! I am SO blessed to have made it successfully through these many weeks and appreciate your continued kindness and generosity! Blessings and Gratitude for all of your support, ♡ Connie April 24, 2020
Parents, It has been another successful week of South Hills Zoom Academy and my staff and I are thrilled to see so many children attending! Your continued emails and kind support are a daily boost for us and we are so happy to connect with your children through virtual learning. As an update, the Governor’s recent plan includes the potential for Child Care Centers to reopen on May 8, but we have some initial problems to work out:
As requested during music class, please take photos or scan your children’s art work and send to me at ckerrvogt@shills.info (scanning recommended)! I will post as much as I can on Instagram (@southhillsinc). Hug your children from me and all of the South Hills’ teachers! Blessings, ♥ Connie April 18, 2020
Parents, Thank you for your continued support of South Hills Zoom Academy! Your positive response has been overwhelming and we are pleased that this “pick and choose” option of live and recorded sessions is working well for you. Your emails of support and encouragement make our day! Governor Wolf has now begun the process of reopening our state and County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper has also supported that Erie County be among the regions to reopen. Once the county/state reaches Phase 2 of the reopening plan, South Hills will be able to reopen. We are HOPING this occurs around mid May, as each phase is approximately two weeks in length. Many states are already moving to Phase 1 after preliminary criteria have been met. I am being proactive and hopeful; I met with my staff late yesterday afternoon to share my plan with them. I would now like to share it with you:
I will keep you posted as information changes frequently. My staff and I would be overjoyed to return to South Hills within a month and see your children and resume our work with them! I continue to say prayers for all daily! Be safe; be well... Blessings, ❤️Connie April 10, 2020
Parents, Week 2 of South Hills Zoom Academy concluded on Thursday as we are closed today for Good Friday as scheduled. Thank you to everyone who is writing with words of encouragement and support! I am attempting to return emails to all, but feel I may be missing someone—if so it is unintentional! The staff and I value each and every word we receive from you! UPDATE 1: BY NOW YOU ARE AWARE THAT GOVERNOR WOLF HAS CLOSED ALL PA SCHOOLS FOR THE REST OF THE SCHOOL YEAR. South Hills is included in that mandate. We are fully prepared to continue our Zoom lessons, and hope you will stay with us, regardless of ability to pay. I fully intend to stay open as long as possible, and look forward to the end of this crisis. Times like this can be stressful for children as well as adults. Children derive much comfort, security, independence and confidence from structure and routine. They feel most comfortable and feel most secure when they engage in the natural “rhythm” of their day, and confidence grows as they learn and follow specific routines, then gradually learn to cope with small changes in the routine, especially when told ahead of time to prepare and adjust. Gradually they learn to handle increasing numbers of changes, as their confidence grows. For that reason, keeping your child connected to the routine of school, as well as the vital connections of the people they have spent their days with—their teachers and friends!—is especially important. We will still be completing our year end assessments to the best of our ability and are planning a Zoom Graduation and End of the Year Ceremony! We continue to hope the summer term will mean a reopening of our doors and beautiful playground. We are working hard to prepare for the children’s joyful return!! Even if you cannot financially support us, please continue to have your child participate for all the above reasons! You are part of the South Hills Family, and money cannot be a consideration over your child’s continuation with us! UPDATE 2: Many of you are requesting individual sessions with your children as we are doing with Kindergarten, and would like to see the PreK enrichment program included. We have had many discussions about this but sadly cannot find a way for it to be possible. The Kindergarten class has only 13 students and two teachers, which makes individual sessions possible in place of recorded ones. Their requirements are also much more rigorous as they are in the elementary school portion of our program. The preschool teachers have 20-24 students in a weeks time. You can see the dilemma. The teachers are contracted to work 47.5 hours per week. By the time they complete their planning, three recorded lessons each day, plus live sessions and our daily/weekly meetings and trainings, they have all gone beyond that. Plus, they still must complete their annual required coursework and a variety of documentations. We tried to find ways to incorporate the enrichment program, but to date the best we have brainstormed is that I will try to add as much as possible to my music classes. We will add some additional resources when possible. I continue to pray for us all, and count the overwhelming blessings of having such a talented, dedicated and enthusiastic group of teachers to carry out the vision of South Hills, as well as the amazing families to support and encourage us! We miss your children more than you can possibly image—they are the highlight of each day for us! If you celebrate Passover/Easter, I wish you a most blessed holiday. Blessings and Gratitude to all, ❤ Connie April 4, 2020
Parents, Welcome to week two of South Hills Zoom Academy! Thank you for your continued support and feedback as we move into our second week of online learning. My staff and I are reviewing each of your suggestions and concerns as we continue adjusting Zoom Academy to best meet your needs and schedules. 4/4 Update 1: Based on your initial feedback and our own concerns, we have added an extra measure of privacy and security to our virtual learning. Beginning immediately, passwords have been added to ALL South Hills online classrooms. Your classroom IDs for live group sessions remain unchanged. Please refer to the classroom IDs and passwords listed on your child's weekly class schedule to access your LIVE sessions this week. Class schedules are located within your Zoom Dropbox folder and will be available by tomorrow (Sunday, April 5). We ask that you please do not share these passwords with anyone! Steps to accessing your classrooms will not change: After entering your classroom ID and child’s name, select “Join”. A prompt will appear asking for the meeting password before continuing into the classroom. 4/4 Update 2: Siblings and family members within your household are always invited to LIVE group music and Spanish/Sign Language sessions! As always, if you are having difficultly in accessing your Zoom folder on Dropbox, please contact Beth via the South Hills website HERE. I cannot fully express how much we enjoyed reconnecting with your children this week! Seeing them online and sharing in conversation with them and their classmates was an ENORMOUS boost for us all! We miss your children SO MUCH and look forward to seeing them this week! Blessings, ♡ Ms Connie |
AuthorUpdates on COVID-19 and Virtual Learning at South Hills. Archives
October 2020
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