January 5, 2021

 

Dear Parent;

 

Faced with the challenges created by the recent surge in COVID cases,

the Board of Directors of Community Nursery School has made the difficult decision to close until Monday, January 24th.  

We know that this could cause hardship for some families, but with our first and foremost priority to keep your children, your family and our staff and their families safe, we felt that this course of action is necessary. Considerations in our decision were:

 

·      The current surge of COVID has created a testing positivity rate of 19.69% in Dutchess County, and this does NOT include results of in-home testing!  (Remember that all schools closed last year when the positivity rate was 8%.) For more details, please visit the Dutchess County COVID-19 Community Impact Dashboard 

 

·      The CDC has identified children under the age of 5 as particularly vulnerable to the Omicon variant of COVID, as there is no vaccinate for this age group.

 

·      The challenges of keeping masks on young children during cold and flu season is a constant challenge. 

 

·      CNS already has one staff member in isolation with a positive COVID test result. Should anyone else become infected, we would not be able to provide proper staffing for the program.

 

Your tuition will be pro-rated for your February payment to reflect the time of closure. However, the Board of Directors has decided to continue paying our amazing staff. If you would like to contribute to our efforts to support our staff, you are certainly welcome to make a regular tuition payment on February 1st.

 

The Board of Directors plans to meet on January 20th to re-assess conditions in our community and determine if it’s safe to reopen the program or continue the closure. There is evidence that the Omicron variant is fast-moving and that this surge will end quickly. We will be hopeful that this is so.

 

On behalf of the CNS Board of Directors and the staff, I thank you for your understanding and patience. I know that we are all eager for a normal life without COVID. But until that is reality, we shall continue to err on the side of caution, with your child’s health and safety as our top priority. 

 

If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to call myself (at 845-505-1302) or Diana (at 845-471-3343).

 

 

Sincerely,

 

Barbara Adams

President, Board of Directors

Community Nursery School of

   Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church