This morning, I have good news to share: starting from Monday, August 31, we are going to extend the hour of operation from 7:30am to 5:00pm
Our current hours of operation (7:30am to 4:30pm) is dictated by the social distancing rules, and re-enforced by our voluntary reduction in capacity. The practice keeps children from COVID-19 infection in small social distancing groups and allows teachers to work within the limits set by labor law.
But the shortened hours have taken away convenience and flexibility from our parents. Our parents have been very understanding and accommodating, but we are aware of the sacrifices you have made and we are grateful.
What changed is that now the enrollment has recovered to such a level that most of our rooms or age programs have at least two teachers now. With one teacher coming in at 7:30am, the other can come at 8:00am to provide the necessary coverage till 5:00pm, each teacher completing an 8-hour shift.
We can extend the hours of operation this without compromising the social distance rules. Your child will continue to stay in their home room group for the entire time, exposed only to minimum and necessary number of teachers.
What we are asking from the parents is the following:
- please be consistent with your drop-off and pick-up time, and
- please keep your child in the school for no more than 9 hours per day.
- All children need to be picked up by 5:00pm.
If you are used to dropping off close to 7:30am, please do that every day, but please also pick up very close to 4:30pm. If you like to pick up close to 5:00pm, please do not drop off until close to 8:00am. The 9 hours day maximum will be the norm for Sunset Academy for now as well as in the future.
As we could not combine classrooms like we did in the past, our challenge is to cover all classrooms for the extended half an hour without compromising social distancing rules.
With your understanding and cooperation, we can do this.
Thanks and best regards,
Nina Emmer, Director, Sunset Academy