PARENT UPDATES
JANUARY 2023
It is hard to believe that we are getting close to completing January! The winter began quite early and certainly with a “roar”! It is very strange that we have had more snow days earlier in the season but no complaints here! We don’t mind at all being able to drive to work without too many road issues. Now, lets hope it stays that way.
We have a few updates for you. Please reach out with any questions.
Perham Updates: We are getting closer to being able to move our current preschoolers into our newly remodeled space. Within the next week or two we will make sure the finishing touches are done as requested by licensing and then move our preschoolers across the hall. The new space is beautiful, and I am very excited to share it with everyone. At that point, we will move the toddlers into the current preschool space while the remodel takes place for the toddler rooms. With the moving and shifting, we ask that everyone be patient as there is a lot for our staff to do. We may be closing for ½ day to be sure that our staff have enough time to get the moving and organizing done. Perham parents will be notified as soon as I have that scheduled.
Staff meetings: The Fergus Falls staff meeting is Monday, January 23, 2023 and all parents were notified to pick up children by 5:00pm. The Perham staff meeting is Thursday, February 2nd and we ask that all parents please pick up your children by 5:00pm. It is important that children are picked up at that time so we can promptly start our meeting and get our staff home at a reasonable time. Thank you very much for your help!
Child Care contracts to change: In a decision at our last Board meeting, Children’s Corner will be changing how we contract with our families. We will be offering set blocks of time (9.5 hours) that parents may choose from. To make sure we are using our staff time wisely and have a firmer time for drop off and pick up, we will be moving to this model. It is used by other centers around the state and after a lot of research, this model will cut down on added staff time which means a healthier budget. More information will be coming out the beginning of February for each location. The tentative start date for this contracting will be the beginning of March, but we want to be sure that everything is in place before we begin. I wanted to give everyone a heads up now so you were all aware. More to come on this topic in a couple of weeks.
Illness: We have slowed down the “illness train” recently. Although we had a tough stomach bug go through Fergus recently, we have been lucky in that the numbers were not too high and it seemed to be pretty short lived. Thank you to all who kept your children at home to rest and recover before bringing them back. We are looking forward to even more healthier days ahead. Please call the center if you are wondering about keeping your child home.
Sue
Greetings!
We are very happy that the weather is cooperating at the start of what I am sure will be a busy week for all! Although the wind chill doesn’t help, it doesn’t prevent us from getting to work and that is our goal. Please travel safely!
Reminder: Both Children’s Corner locations will be closed on Monday, December 26th and Monday, January 2nd. This was shared with families earlier this fall but wanted to get a reminder out there as I know how busy everyone is at this time of year.
Staff appreciation: Thank you! I would like to give a big shoutout to all our staff. They have all worked hard at keeping their classrooms clean, sanitized, and open for children to come and enjoy during a very lengthy round of multiple illnesses. We are very lucky to have dedicated, caring staff who show up each day to do their very best for our children and families. Thank you for your hard work and the effort that you put into caring for our “littles”!
Perham expansion: Woohoo!! Children’s Corner is excited to announce that we have a signed agreement with Perham Health and KLN to expand our services in Perham. We have been in the Perham Living building the past 10 years, and Perham Health is renovating our current space as well as additional space so that we are able to expand the number of childcare spots that will be available. We have worked closely with both businesses who are stepping up to provide support for this growth. We will have a unique, new to our region partnership that shows how a business can work with child care within their community.
Upcoming weather: As mentioned in earlier communications, we do not like to close our doors during our business hours. It is always a last resort, but when we live in a place where weather can be very unpredictable in the winter months, there is not a lot we can do when it does happen. We take a lot of measures to gauge weather conditions, road reports and the ability for our staff to travel safely. On those days, my day begins at 4:30am to begin the process as decisions are not made quickly. We will always do our best to remain open but must weigh the risk against safety. Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate these winter months. This is never an easy decision and certainly not a fun one to make!
Please take good care of yourselves and your families as things get super busy with the weekend coming up. Enjoy time with those that make you smile!
Blessings,
Sue
UPDATE 12/19/22
WINTER WEATHER REMINDER (Dec. 2022)
Winter weather is upon us and I am reaching out to just provide a heads up that with the possible weather predicted for this week, we ask that you plan ahead in case we are unable to open, delayed in opening or have to close early.
Our goal is NOT to close but as we witnessed last year, the weather is far beyond our control. We do not have enough staff who live “in town” that would be able to travel safely in the event that the road conditions are too hazardous to travel. Safety for all is our number one priority.
If the decision is made the night before, all parents who are signed up for REMIND will receive a message and a posting on the website. If a decision is made in the morning, it will be made no later than 6:00am. All announcements will come via the REMIND notification system as well as posted on our website. Please always check the website on the days that you are wondering about.
Again, this is just a heads up and reminder to pre-plan as an advanced measure. We would hope that there isn’t a need, but we also understand where we live makes it difficult to be confident that we won’t have to close at some point during the winter.
Stay safe!
Sue
HEALTH UPDATES
(11/28/22)
To parents of both Perham and Fergus centers:
Children’s Corner Perham and Fergus Falls continues to see multiple cases of COVID, Influenza and RSV. We are asking that you be very vigilant in watching for any signs or symptoms of these highly contagious illnesses. We know how hard it is to have to balance work, family, and sick children, but we are obligated to protect our healthy children and staff from becoming ill if possible. We want everyone to remain as healthy as possible but understand that in group settings such as work, childcare and school, that it becomes quite challenging. Our proactive approach to sending children home as soon as we see signs of illness and our requirement of keeping children home for an appropriate amount of time to rest, heal and get past the contagious period, is the very best approach that we can take for our littles and our staff. Our goals is not to make anyone’s life harder, but to maintain our licensing requirements to remain a healthy child care setting. It would not be helpful or advantageous for us to start losing staff to illness and close classrooms.
We thank you for your help and support at this time and are grateful to those of you who let us know when your child is ill and have been proactive in keeping them home. That partnership is important to us and we will keep working together to get through this rough patch. Our staff are doing their best to keep everything clean and sanitized as best as possible, please know that if you receive a call, that they are all doing their jobs as needed and required.
Thank you again for your understanding,
Sue
CHILDREN’S CORNER UPDATE
(11/18/22)
PARENTS:
We have had an extremely large surge of respiratory infections coming to our Fergus center. We have had multiple confirmed cases of RSV and at the same time I am very aware of the high percentage of influenza cases within our community. Children’s Corner is reaching out to request all parents to be very vigilant in helping us to keep a healthy center. Just today, we have over 30 children out sick at the Fergus Falls center. In some cases, entire classrooms of children are gone due to this fast-spreading respiratory illness. We thank those that have called in to our center to keep their children home because they were too sick to attend this week. Your help is very appreciated.
Unfortunately, in some conversations with family members, we learned that several of the children were brought to the child care center with the symptoms already present but not reported to staff upon arrival. We work hard to sanitize daily, practice continuous handwashing, keep sick staff home and send children home as soon as possible if they become ill at child care. It makes our jobs that much harder if children are brought to child care already sick.
Due to the extreme amount of children who have been affected by this illness, we are reminding all parents that our staff will send children home immediately if they present any of the symptoms within our sick policy, and especially if they are showing any kind of respiratory concerns. We will not wait to watch how children progress during the day but make a very quick decision to send them home once respiratory symptoms are identified. Children will not be able to return to child care until their symptoms have subsided so that they can participate in normal daily activities, inclusive of play, interaction with others, eating, drinking, napping and not having a nose that needs to be wiped excessively. They must be completely fever free without the aid of medication and they cannot return to child care using any cough suppressant or other medication that staff are not aware of.
Please review the sick policy within this posting as a reminder of symptoms that can trigger a child being sent home. It is important to remember, a child doesn’t need to have a fever present to be sent home or too sick to attend. They can have any symptom within our sick policy, without a fever, and still not be able to attend child care.
Our hope is that we can push through this and keep as many of our “littles” healthy as possible. We ask that you work in partnership with us to achieve this goal and make sure our centers remain a healthy place for children to be cared for each day.
Please refer to our sick policy that follows as a reminder. Reach out with questions to Tracy, Emma or Sue if you are unsure if your child should attend or not. Thank you for your continued help with this.
Sue
