*The Club will be opening its School Age Summer Fun program on July 13, 2020. Only children registered for the program (and staff) will be allowed to enter the Club. Details about additional programs for youth, adults and the general public will be coming soon. Please see updates and ongoing response plans to COVID-19, including our COVID-CARE PLAN, under the Information Tab; UPDATED 7/2/2020 *

Preschool 2020

Preschool - Summer 2020

 
Dear Preschool Families,
 
I hope that you are all doing well and managing through these times of uncertainty. All of the staff at the Club miss seeing all of our preschoolers!
 
As many of you have probably heard, the Department of Early Education and Care (EEC) recently issued new guidelines for childcare and has released protocols for reopening the sector. The Ludlow Boys & Girls Club is in the process of reviewing these guidelines and putting a plan into place to hopefully reopen our Preschool program by the end of July. The new guidelines include important measures to keep children and staff safe while at Preschool and will result in several changes for the program. Guidelines are available to the public for viewing here.
 
We would like to take a minute to outline some of these new guidelines:
 
  • Limited capacity/smaller classroom sizes (max of 10 children per class),
  • Physical distancing between children and staff and the encouragement of masks by children when physical distancing is not possible;
  • Consistent groups with no mixing between teachers or children;
  • Health screening at arrival time, and
  • Pick up and drop off being done outside of the building.
 
As a result of these and related constraints, the first change we will need to make upon reopening for the summer is reducing our program to 7 hours a day. Additionally, the Club must redesign much of our operations and infrastructure in order to adhere to the guidelines. These changes will significantly increase the Club's operating costs.
 
Unfortunately, these additionally costs come at a time when the Club is still recovering from substantial revenue losses, losses from being closed for several months and having to cancel our largest fundraising event of the year. As a result of the combination of lost revenue and new costs, we will need to take the unavoidable step of raising our fees slightly.
 
In the spirit of transparency, we will continue to share updates to support your family’s planning. We respectfully ask for your help with our planning by completing this brief survey by July 1. We want to do our best to try to support your family’s needs. Even if you know that you are not in need of care for the summer or the fall we ask that you please still take a minute to complete the form so that we will know your future intentions.
 
As we begin the process of reopening we are also working on a plan to have some sort of recognition for our Preschool graduates. We know that they deserve it and we would love the chance to see them again before moving on to Kindergarten.
 
Also, we recognize that most of the children have personal items that are still in the classrooms. We will also be organizing a time when these things can be picked up. More details about both of these events will be coming soon.
 
Although there may be many changes in the operation of our preschool when we open back one thing that remains the same is our commitment to your child and their educational experience.
 
We are looking forward to hearing from you and hope to see you all soon. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions.
 
Sincerely,
 
Katie Mitus, Director of Youth Services