Update From Playschool 9/4/21

Hi Parents,

I hope this email finds you and your loved ones safe and well during this unfortunate time.  As if Covid wasn’t enough to deal with to start the school year, now Ida gave us even more to manage.  I am sending you this email just to let you know where we stand as of now with the playschool campus and the start of the school year.

 

John Calvin was lucky as far as damage from the storm goes, and we escaped with minimal effects. We had a water line bust underground on the playground, a fence on the big playground come partially down, some playground equipment get tossed, and some ceiling tiles in classrooms that need to be replaced.  As far as we can tell (without having power) those are the only damages we can see.  The 2 large trees that came down did not land on the building so we were very fortunate.  Obviously, we will be unable to start school on Sept. 7 & 8 as planned, but we do intend on starting as soon as possible after the power is restored and the sewerage systems are deemed appropriate to handle lots of flushing toilets.  If the power is restored on September 8 (as suggested by Entergy) and we can find no other issues with the campus that would prevent us from safely having the children at school, we hope to start school on September 14 with the same schedule that was supposed to take place on Sept. 7. The September 8th schedule will take place on September 15 and 4’s and TK students will have a regular half day till 11:45 on that day.  Extended Day and Before Care would then start during the week of September 20. Again, this is the TENTATIVE plan as long as the campus is safe and we have enough teachers able to be here to fully staff the school.

 

Just as we have some playschool families that faired well with minimal damages, we have some that have suffered immense damage.  The same goes for our teachers- we have some that lost everything and some with minimal damage.  Those that lost everything will probably/ most likely not be able to start the beginning of the school year with us, but they will return as soon as they can after figuring out living arrangements and their family necessities.  In those couple of classrooms, a sub or another teacher or myself will cover for them until their return.  We also have the issue of teachers being able to be at work, but their young children not being back in school yet due to their schools being severely damaged (if we open on Sept. 14 and some other schools do not open yet).  As you can see, there are many moving parts but I am doing my best to make it work as best we can.  Please, please be understanding and patient as we do our best to navigate these difficult, stressful times. We are working hard to get our students in school as soon as we can to bring a sense of normalcy and routine to their lives, and we know that parents need some time to decompress/ work/ clean/ run errands without them for a few hours. 

 

This is the best update I can give so far and as soon as power is restored and I can assess the situation fully I will let you know. Just to sum up—school will not start as planned but we HOPE to begin exactly one week later with the same schedule. I will confirm the start date with another email and Facebook post so please be on the lookout for it.  In the meantime, stay safe, stay healthy, and hug your little ones tightly because this is their first big hurricane experience and the way we handle it is the way they will remember it.  It is far from ideal in any way, but life has a way of taking our plans and throwing curve balls in there.  I pray that you and your family are able to come together and enjoy this curve ball a little as we are reminded that property can be replaced, but loved ones and our sense of community is priceless.

 

Will be in touch soon,

Lauren Crisler Oufnac

Director

John Calvin Presbyterian Playschool

(504) 888-1378