March 12, 2020

Dear Parents,

Per the OC Department of Health, the risk of the COVID-19 is still believed to be relatively low in Orange County. However, your child's health and wellbeing are IvyCrest's first priority and therefore we will be putting additional precautions and measures into place to ensure we are staying ahead of the virus. Please take note of the following, and understand that updates will be issued as needed.

First and foremost, if a child, parent, or IvyCrest staff member has a cough or fever, we require them to stay home. Those with fevers may not return to school until they are fever-free, without the use of fever reducing medication, for a full 24 hours.  We encourage you to check your child's temperature each morning, as well as your own (parents and guardians) prior to coming to school. 

To minimize our students exposure to germs, we are asking that parents/guardians adhere to a "one adult per child" drop off and pick up procedure. In other words, we ask that only one authorized pick up person enter the school. Any additional adults that accompany the designated pick up person are asked to wait outside the building. If you have multiple children enrolled, a second adult may accompany you to assist. Parents, once at your child's classroom, we ask that you stay in the entryway, and your child's teacher will send your child to you. Please avoid moving about the classroom, as we are trying to reduce the number of touches on surfaces, as well as airborne droplets from coughs and sneezes. We encourage you to apply hand sanitizer after using our sign in/out touchscreens and clipboards to minimize the spread of germs.

IvyCrest will remain open unless directed by the Orange County Department of Health or Center for Disease Control to close. If a student or staff is diagnosed with COVID-19, we will notify parents immediately and follow the recommendations from the agencies listed above about how to proceed. In the event that we are recommended to close, we are committed to providing supplemental academic materials for our students ages 4 and above.  

In regards to upcoming school events, we do plan to continue as much normalcy for the children as possible, while proceeding with caution. However, the Fullerton and Brea School Districts have shut down their transportation services for extra-curricular activities, so sadly, we are forced to cancel our Rooms 10/11 Sports Day at the Park and possibly our Primary/Elementary Tanaka Farms Strawberry Patch field trips. We do plan to continue our Spring Parties and Egg Hunts, however, we are asking that this be a student-only event (no parents) and that parents bring prepared foods only, nothing homemade.

Lastly, we will hold our Spring Show as planned. However, depending on the state of the COVID-19 at the time of the shows, we may be holding this as a non-audience event or a limited audience event, and we will record and/or stream the show for our families if needed. We are hopeful that by the end of May, the situation will have improved, but we do have a back-up plan in place should we need it. Above all else, the show must go on!

My fellow Directors and I thank you for your patience, support, and understanding during this challenging time. We take the safety of your children seriously and will continue to employ the recommendations from our local health authority to maintain a healthy environment for our students. We will notify you with further updates as we receive them.

 

Sincerely,

The IvyCrest Board of Directors