Date: September 4, 2020
Subject: Suspending Operations on September 18, 2020
To: All Parents and Sprouting Star Familes
On September 18, 2020, Sprouting Star Children’s Academy is suspending child care operations likely through November of 2020. We hope to resume operations in December. This, however, is dependent on the COVID-19 health situation and business environment. Tuition will be prorated through the 18th. If you have paid for any portion after the 18th, it will be refunded. For CCS PSOC, Workforce automatically transfers this balance to your new provider.
Since the March 13th President declared disaster, Sprouting Star has had to suspend services on four separate occasions as a precautionary response to health concerns of COVID-19. We are extremely thankful that we never had any confirmed cases of COVID-19 at our center, neither with children nor staff. While we know that it is not possible to entirely eliminate the risk, we believe that many of the measures that we have taken, including the preemptive closures, have helped reduce the risk to children and staff, even as we navigated the spike in local infections that peaked in July.
Financially, however, these closures have taken their toll on the school. With each closure, the number of returning children drop. Even the last closure, which was medically cleared and services restored after only one day, resulted in a 10% drop in enrollment. We initially received some government support to offset these losses. However these funds either exhausted in June or the benefits reduced in June and July. With the continued closures, and the lack of any new stimulus support, it has reached a critical point.
There is no evidence to suggest that the situation will dramatically change in the coming few months. Were we to continue operating, more closures would likely be necessary to protect children and staff, causing the financial situation to continue to worsen. Therefore, it seems that the best course of action is to suspend services and patiently wait for things to stabilize enough to operate both safely and reliably.
I would like to thank all of our families for standing with us during these times. I would also like to thank my staff, who have continued to report to work and care for your children, despite their own health concerns and a significantly more challenging environment with PPE and sanitation. It is a heart-felt decision, as I know that all of you have been dedicated to the success here at Sprouting Star.
Since the pandemic seems to have a will of its own, we cannot predict the length of the suspended operations. Therefore we wished to give all families a customary two weeks notice to find alternative arrangements for care before operations closed. Hopfully before the end of the year, the situation will impove, and we can safely reopen and try to move beyond 2020.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Kind Regards,
John Russo
President, Sprouting Star Children’s Academy