COVID-19 Related Announcements

COVID PROTOCOLS

LMDN is committed to providing an engaging, and age appropriate curriculum for its students while keeping a strong sense of community and connection and continuing its philosophy of emotional and social education.

Following the guidelines of the DOH, our school is fully open  for in-person learning, Monday through Friday, including After School. 

OUR GOALS 

  • Protect the physical and mental health and safety of students, faculty, and staff
  • Provide a safe and healthy space for children and teachers
  • Provide LMDN emotional education/hands on academic experience in an in-person creative environment
  • Focus on individual growth, constructive communication, and group work
  • Be compliant with guidelines of the NYC Department of Health (DOH) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
  • Maintain our strong sense of community
  • Deepen school–parent partnerships
  • Establish innovative and effective use of school spaces in door and outdoor
  • Create new ways of expressing ourselves, new ways of communicating and new ways of being human in our new restricted environment

ARRIVAL AND DISMISSAL

We are implementing protocols for health screening of students, faculty, and staff before and during their arrival at school.

ARRIVAL

  • We are currently reviewing our ‘staggered arrival’ policy and will be looking to DOH guidelines for the coming year.  Currently arrival is staggered so that each class arrives at different times, older children arriving first. Arrival time currently is 8:15 – 9:00 am. Parents will need to arrive at their allocated time.
  • Parents as well as teachers must complete a Health Check as they arrive.
  • Pre-K children enter by themselves on the Upper level.
  • All other parents enter with children on Basement level. Wash hands, have temperature taken, then bring children to the First Floor. Parents leave from the First Floor after dropping off their child.
  • All parents and children entering the building must have their temperatures taken
  • No strollers are permitted
  • No toys from home are permitted
  • Lunches from home are permitted

DISMISSAL

Parents log children out on Brightwheel, then wait outside school and children are brought to them by teachers.  This is currently done on a staggered schedule – for the coming year the schedule will be announced at start of school. 

Departure time will be from 2:30 – 3:00 pm.

AFTER SCHOOL

Dismissal is at 5:30, but parents can notify teachers via Brightwheel and pick up their child earlier

Parents will wait outside and children will be brought out individually

TRAFFIC/ADULTS

  • There is uni-directional traffic only, arrows will show direction
  • Currently masks are optional for teachers children and parents
  • Children stay in their own class groups and do not interact with other class groups
  • Teachers stay in their own group and do not move from class to class
  • No delivery people are allowed in the building-outside contractors/instructors must be masked

CHANGES IN ARRIVAL/DEPARTURE SCHEDULES

  • There will be no flexibility in arrival and departure, and no early pickups or dismissals. In case of emergency parents will call the school and the child will be brought out to the parent or caregiver. 

OUR PROCEDURES AND PRECAUTIONS

CLEANING AND DISINFECTING

LMDN has implemented increased cleaning, sanitizing, and disinfecting procedures for our classrooms, public spaces, and high-touch surfaces.  

CLASSROOMS

  • All classrooms have windows and access to fresh air
  • All classrooms have fresh air–fed air-conditioning units or fans. AC filters will be replaced with new filters and cleaned regularly
  • All classrooms have access to sinks toilets and wash hand basins
  • Every classroom has hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies such as bleach,  alcohol, etc.
  • Teachers sanitize toys and tables and all other items touched by children when they transition from using them.
  • Teachers sanitize all areas used by staff in the classroom, directly after use.
  • Every classroom will be sanitized at the end of the day. 
  • Sharing toys, books, games, and other learning aids will be limited.
  • Children will have their own set of art supplies/materials for activities

BUILDING

  • All high-touch surfaces will be cleaned throughout the day and all common use spaces will be cleaned every night.
  • Strollers/scooters will not be permitted in the building.
  • Items brought from home such as pacifiers, comfort toys, must remain at school. They may be brought home periodically to be cleaned.
  • Teachers and children will wear smocks or coveralls.  These smocks remain in school and will be regularly washed.

LUNCH

Parents will provide lunch. Students will eat lunch in their classrooms and be spaced well apart.  No sharing of food is permitted.  School will provide individual snack portions. Children may bring water bottles, or will be served filtered water in disposable cups or bottles. Teachers will wear protective gloves while serving food or water. One day a week will be pizza day.

OUTDOORS

We will utilize our roof deck and back yard space on a rotating basis.  Our outside spaces will be sanitized between classes.

PERSONAL PROTECTION EQUIPMENT

Students are not currently required to wear a mask to school, however masks are optional and parents can choose to have their child wear one.  Masks cannot be worn during snack, lunch, rest or outside play time. 

HEALTH SUPPORT

There will be one central administrator who will be responsible to notify parents of fever or other symptoms.  We are able to isolate a child who may have fever while awaiting parent pickup.  We have developed protocols in conjunction with DOH for reporting of COVID 19 confirmed cases.  Children will need to remain at home for a quarantine period, if diagnosed with COVID or if a family member has been diagnosed with COVID. If a case of COVID occurs parents will be notified of the occurance and issued guidelines regarding quarantine and exclusion.

TRAVEL AND TESTING

Currently there are no testing requirements for travel

COMMUNITY RESPONSIBILITY

Keeping our community safe and healthy will be achieved through a strong partnership between our school and our families. We strongly urge all families to maintain a firm commitment to physical distancing and to limit travel to areas of concern for the two-week period leading up to their child’s return to school.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND TRAINING

All staff members are participating in professional-development classes that will prepare them for safety and emotional responsiveness in the classroom. Thanks to the empathic and secure guidelines of the DOH we are confident we can maintain our emotional and academic curricula with minimal adaptations.