Guidepost Montessori Head of School Channler Williams said the school has adopted additional health and safety measures to help protect students, staff and teachers from COVID-19.
“We really wanted to be able to be a guidepost, if you will, in terms of us helping essential workers to be able to be dedicated back to their work without the distraction of managing the educational environments of their children in the home setting,” Williams said. “So us being able to open for essential workers really allows parents to have that same comfort so they can be focused on their work and the efforts that they are contributing to be able to help end this pandemic.”
Every learning environment at Guidepost Montessori will have no more than 10 individuals at a time in order to comply with social distancing guidelines, Williams said. Classrooms have also been set up to keep students distanced from each other, she said.
“There's constant hand-washing and constant sanitizing of anything that a child could potentially touch,” she said. “Before entering the school, all children are required to have their temperature taken in order for us to make sure that no child or parent is coming into the building with any COVID-19-like symptoms.”
For students who are able to learn at home, the school is also offering virtual learning, she said.
“We are still taking a new students in addition to serving the current families that we had prior to the COVID-19 outbreak,” Williams said. “We want to be here for any outside families who may be struggling to find quality care for their child during this time, as many of the childcare centers in the area and surrounding area are closed. Not many open back up just for emergency child care.”
In the face of the uncertainty that has come along with the pandemic, Williams said, it is useful to give children a sense of stability in their education.
“The guides who've come back to our school to serve during this time are the faces the children are familiar with,” she said. “So it's been a natural process for the children to return to see some of their beloved guides, and I think that that has helped tremendously with them not feeling any of that anxiety of being lost in wondering what's happening with their parents in the midst of the coronavirus.”
Because things are rapidly changing due to COVID-19, the school has begun offering discounted, week-to-week tuition, Williams said.
“This allows them the flexibility if something ends up happening. ... Let's say a parent is put on furlough, and they're no longer able to afford the services. They just need to be able to provide us a one-week notice, and then, they would be able to drop out of the program at that time,” she said. “We want to do what we can to provide the support our community needs right now.”
