Dear Families,
The Ames Child Care Center is a non-profit center dedicated to providing a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment to our children.
The Board of Directors met for several hours today and held many emails over the last 2 weeks to discuss our current situation.
As of now, we will remain closed. As the County of Santa Clara and the other Bay Area Counties announced today, many businesses will be closing at midnight tonight and everyone is strongly encouraged to “shelter in place” except for essential outings until April 7th. While Child Care Centers were deemed in this public health order to be “essential” and it is up to each Child Care Center to determine if they will stay open or close, the Board of Directors has carefully considered the situation and determined that we will remain closed. This is to do our part as the Ames Child Care Center Family to help the overall public health situation. While we hope that life, in general, will return to normal on or before April 7th, we made contingency plans today to stay closed for up to 8 weeks. ACCC will be closed with no access during this time.
I am sure this brings up a lot of questions and I will try to answer some of them here.
TUITION
After carefully considering the reserves of the center, paying the staff, maintaining their health insurance, and maintaining our licensing as a Child Care Center and the costs that go along with that, we will be reducing the effective tuition rate of all families by 60%. This means that you will only be paying 40% of your normal tuition.
We have also asked the staff to take a reduction in pay during this time to stretch ourselves as long as we can.
The Board of Directors will reassess this situation every week at a minimum and as any new guidance, directives, or laws come out from local, state, and federal authorities.
PAYING TUITION
For those on autopay, your tuition will still be deducted on Monday, March 23 as usual, but will be in the reduced amount. If you have a question on your specific rate, please contact Claire directly at claire.hung@ameschildcare.org.
For those who pay in person (check, cash, money order, etc), please contact Ida directly to make arrangements as soon as possible. You may contact Ida directly at ida.stevens@ameschildcare.org
CHILD CARE OPTIONS
If you need child care during this time, we have asked staff that if they are approached by families for child care during the normal operating hours of ACCC (Monday to Friday, 7 am to 6 pm) to not charge ACCC families as the staff will already be receiving compensation all be it reduced. We have also asked them to be mindful of allowing sick people (any illness) into their homes or going to homes with people they believe may be sick and use their judgment in making that decision.
It is between you and any staff member what arrangements you make, this is NOT a service of ACCC.
UPDATES
During this time, the Board of Directors will have a meeting every other Monday rather than once a month to reassess the situation and make plans to have an orderly reopening as soon as possible.
The Board of Directors will also meet more frequently as needed.
I will be in frequent contact with Ida, Neetu, and Claire.
As any new guidance, directives, or laws come out from local, state, and federal authorities, the administration, as well as the Board of Directors, will meet and discuss impacts to ACCC.
I will also send out updates to families as frequently as possible.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
The Parent Work Day on March 28th is postponed until further notice.
Soccer Shots will be offering virtual sessions for those enrolled during this time and will reschedule missed sessions when we reopen. Please watch your email for those announcements directly from Soccer Shots if you are enrolled in that program.
Jennifer Murphy (parent, BoD member, and our IT department) has started a list of activities and ideas to do with children during this time. She will share it through Google Docs tomorrow.
As we become aware of more opportunities, we will share that information with the families.
A few other links to help you during this time
Santa Clara County order for isolation
US Center for Disease Control and Prevention
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html
In closing, please be safe, stay healthy, and take care of yourselves.
Thank you for your support and understanding during this very trying time. We all need to do our part for our families, community, and society in this very unique time. The entire Board of Directors thanks all of you for your assistance and support during this time.
If there is anything we can do for you, please do not hesitate to contact any of the administration staff or myself.
Kevin Stube
President, Ames Child Care Center Board of Directors