Our covid-safe Preschool Position statement
Our school’s central guiding value is that children feel seen, safe, and successful. Accomplishing this aim during a pandemic is no easy feat. It requires that all the adults in our community think deeply about how to balance the competing needs of children, families, and our greater community. Frustratingly, COVID-safe practices and developmental appropriateness don’t always play well together. To promote COVID-safe practices without making unreasonably demands of our students, we’ve settled on the following guiding statements. At Pando…
Children will not be shamed or reprimanded for age appropriate behavior. It would do more harm than good to enforce strict social distancing rules with young children. Toddlers forging their first friendships through gentle touch and 5-year-olds playing tag are crucial to a child’s well being and we won’t be prohibiting such experiences.
Children have a right to be free from excessive worry or fear regarding the pandemic. That is our burden, as adults, to carry. Though we will readily discuss the pandemic with interested children, and gently remind children to wash their hands, preoccupation with COVID-safe practices will not be a central part of your child’s daily experience.
Children deserve opportunities to practice COVID-safe behaviors. Given that coronavirus has become endemic, we want children to feel at ease adhering to COVID-safe practices. We accomplish this by giving children opportunities to practice wearing their mask, washing their hands, and asking before entering another person’s personal space.
How is Pando responding to the pandemic?
What’s new?
Our COVID Mitigation Strategies
We are continuously updating our practices to ensure they are consistent with the latest guidance from the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and CDC. Though some details may change, the following practices are central to our COVID-safe protocols:
- All school employees are vaccinated.
- Families are strongly encouraged to vaccinated all eligible members in their household.
- Mask use is optional. We support everyone in our community to mask as suits their individual preference.
- Everyone in Pando’s extended community is required to immediately report to the director any exposure to a confirmed case of COVID-19.
- Classrooms are cleaned and sanitized thoroughly.
- Classrooms are consistently ventilated, either by opening doors and windows, or by running our new air filtration system.
- Children spend as much time outside as possible, and we use small groups to reduce the number of children inside at any given time.
- Hand washing is enforced.
Our Time Outside
Weather permitting, students spend much of their day outside. Our building has a huge sandbox, shaded climber, covered patio, chicken run, garden, and biking area.
What’s the same?
Our Philosophy
We’re still the same program we’ve always been - committed to creating a small, vibrant community of learners where children have a right to compelling, real-world learning experiences.
Our Team
Melissa, Micci, Hollie, Brooke, and Brittany all continue to be the heart and soul of our school. We are excited to be joined by Assistant Director, Valerie Stefani, Outdoor Educator, Maddie, and our Assistant Teachers, Carissa, Zoe, and Taylor.
Our classrooms
Our classrooms will continue to be warm, material-rich environments for children to explore with their peers and teachers.
OUR Advocacy
Doing right by children and families during the pandemic has been our focus since March of 2020. When the pandemic began, we advocated for the safety of child care centers who were asked to stay open while public schools shut down. When vaccines became available for essential workers, we supported efforts to ensure child care workers were included. We later urged public officials to extend a test-to-stay model to child care centers, allowing parents to work and giving children much needed consistency. Now, we seek to ensure COVID-specific funding that elevated teacher pay and supported low- and middle-income families continues even as we creep back towards normalcy.
