August 5, 2021
Dear Preschool Families,
Hello from the studio where we are in full preparation mode for the start of our 16th season! Leap’n Learners Preschool classes start Wednesday, September 8th.
Part of our preparation includes a full week of teacher training, facility preparations, and, of course, a Covid-19 update.
Our preschool meets imperative needs for physical fitness, social-emotional health, and mental wellness. Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March of 2020, EDP has provided clear communication and real-time decision making which allowed us to finish our school year with ZERO incidences of Covid-19 transmission while providing consistent access to the benefits that participation in dance classes provides.
At Expressions Dance and Preschool, we make all of our Covid-related decisions based on a variety of inputs, including local and national sources, as well as industry and studio data. At this time, students are welcome and encouraged to wear masks if they are under 12 years old or not vaccinated. Our faculty will be wearing masks when working with classes of students under 12 years old. We ask that everyone be respectful of the choices each family makes regarding masks. Our studio will remain a place for everyone to feel comfortable whether they wear a mask or not.
Our current policies and procedures include asking anyone who is feeling unwell to stay home, asking families to report any known exposures or positive cases to our office, notifying families of any exposure risk from the studio, requiring sanitizing on the way in and out of the studio, encouraging 3 ft. of physical distancing in classes, and managing enrollment flows.
We are aware that the local school districts may have different policies, which are appropriate to their facility ages, student body sizes, and length of school day. Our policies are appropriate to our facility, our class size average is 12, and over half of our student population is only in the building for less than an hour each week.
We will continue monitoring the situation and make you aware of any changes to our current policies and procedures. Potential escalation of policies may include closing the lobby to reduce traffic, further limiting class sizes, mask recommendations and/or requirements, and greater physical distancing requirements in classes.
Thank you for your support!
Sincerely,
Amy Simkins
Expressions Dance is a SAFER STUDIO
The health and safety of our staff, students, and families have always been our highest priority! That's why we follow the More Than Just Great Dancing!® Safer Studio Guidelines which prioritize a hierarchy of safety and wellness measures including:
Frequent hand hygiene
Enhanced cleaning procedures
Minimizing mixing and mingling via social distancing practices
Curricular and facility adjustments
Continuous parent communications
Limited lobby access to parents
Please see below for the specific way we'll be applying these guidelines for the Fall:
Wellness
All teachers and staff members will receive regular and continuing safety training as it relates to preventing community spread of COVID-19.
Parents should not send their children to class if they have a fever or other COVID-19 symptoms.
Frequent Hand Hygiene
Employees will wash hands and/or sanitize before and after each class.
Hand sanitizing stations will be available outside of all entrances, outside of every classroom, and inside the classrooms. Students will be encouraged to wash hands and/or sanitize before and after classes.
Handwashing posters are posted within bathrooms and classrooms.
Enhanced Cleaning Procedures
We have increased our cleaning frequencies and sanitation procedures of high traffic areas and high touch surfaces of the studio such as doors, viewing windows, barres, floors, counters, stereos, and bathrooms.
Minimized Mixing and Mingling
We have made facility, scheduling, and curricular changes to reduce mixing and mingling in support of social distancing recommendations. However, we understand that unlike older children and adults, young children cannot be expected to maintain social distancing at all times.
Facility & Curricular Adjustments
All lobby waiting areas are CLOSED unless specified.
Dancers will bring all dance bags into the studio for changing shoes.
Classrooms will refrain from high fives, “ballerina hugs,” fist bumps, stickers, and stamps.
Classrooms will have staggered dismissal to allow for student transitions.
Covid-19 Exposure Guidelines
What are the symptoms of COVID-19?
According to the Centers for Disease Control, people with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms reported – ranging from mild symptoms to severe illness. Symptoms may appear 2-14 days after exposure to the virus. Anyone can have mild to severe symptoms. People with these symptoms may have COVID-19: Fever or chills, cough, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea or vomiting, diarrhea.
What if my child has been in close contact with someone who has a confirmed case of COVID-19?
If your child has been within three feet for a total of 15 minutes from a person who is confirmed to have the virus at the studio, you will receive a notification by email and text from our EDP COVID Specialist. If the close contact was outside the studio, you need to contact us Your child will NOT need to do anything if:
They’ve had a confirmed case of COVID-19 in the past 90 days.
They have been fully vaccinated.
Both individuals were wearing masks at the time of exposure.
If none of the above apply, you will have have four options:
Your child can be quarantined for 10 days (including weekends) and return to class.
Your child can be quarantined for seven days and receive a rapid test. If they do not have the virus after seven days, they can return to class.
They can attend class and will be required to wear a face mask for 10 days. You will monitor their conditions. If any symptoms arise, they must stay at home.
They can attend class, will be required to wear a mask for 7 days and receive a rapid test. If they do not have the virus, they can return to class without a mask.
What will occur if my child contracts COVID-19?
If your child contracts the virus, he or she will not be able to attend classes and activities until 14 consecutive days pass and they are no longer symptomatic.
ARCHIVES
April 1, 2021
Dear Expressions Dance and Preschool Families,
I wanted to take a moment and send a message regarding the state-wide mask mandate that is scheduled to be lifted on April 10.
I’m sure many of us see this action as a major milestone, marking the progress our state has made over of the past year. However, businesses (and all of us) are still being asked to act with appropriate caution as we move forward into these new and much-anticipated phases.
While vaccinations are progressing at a positive rate, the risk of COVID-19 transmission is still a factor to account for. As such, we are asking our staff, students, and families to continue wearing masks for all in-person classes, as well as in drop-off and pick-up procedures in and around our studio locations. This will continue until the guidelines for quarantining for an exposure begin to lift. We hope you will see the wisdom in this decision, both for the safety of your precious loved ones, as well as for our continued ability to responsibly provide a place for them to come dance, learn, and socialize.
As a point of information: While we have had a negligible occurrence of COVID-19 in our programs, our students have been able to take over 6,000 classes with zero cases of transmission within our buildings since re-opening. We consider that a major win and owe it, in large part, to your willingness and commitment in following these practices.
As a teacher, a dancer, a business owner, and a mom, I look forward to the day when this is no longer an issue any of us has to worry about. In the meantime, we will continue all of the Safer Studio™ measures that have contributed to our success so far, including providing virtual class options for those who don’t feel well, regular well-checks for employees, ongoing facility cleaning, hand sanitization, and face coverings.
As always, we will continue to monitor the situation, making the physical, social, emotional and mental health and well-being of our students our top priority.
Thank you for your continued support and understanding.
Sincerely,
Amy Simkins
October 18, 2020
Governor Herbert held a press conference last week and Utah’s color guidance system is now being replaced by the Transmission Index. Based on this new system, Davis County has been placed in the “Moderate Level of Transmission” and there are new guidelines we need to follow. In addition to our teachers wearing masks, students will also need to wear masks to class. The public health directive for Moderate level of transmission is to wear masks until at least October 29th. Health and safety are our most important priorities. We are working very closely with the Davis County Health Department and following their specific protocols to maintain a seal of approval on how we are conducting business. After October 29, it is at the discretion of county health departments, and we’ll make a decision with the DCHD moving into November.
We’re confident our students can adjust to wearing masks and continue to thrive at preschool. Please remind them to leave their masks on so we can keep coming to preschool in person. We recommend sending them with a lanyard to wear around their neck so they can keep their mask clean when they need to remove it for mask breaks and during snack time.
We understand some students might have conditions that will require a mask exemption. If this is the case for your student, please contact the office. We will not be requiring students to keep their mask on during high-activity times in movement classes when we are physically distanced.
We continue to be impressed with how resilient our students are, and with how happy they are to be back in classes. We also really appreciate how great parents have been with symptom checking and keeping kids home if they are not well. We want to remind everyone of the importance of good hand hygiene, mask wearing, and physical distancing outside of school. It is important that we all do our part both inside and outside of preschool to decrease the risk of exposure.
We hope we can continue keeping our exposure risk low and appreciate your trust in us to do our best.
July 29, 2020
Dear Leap’n Learners Preschool Families,
As you a probably aware, our local schools have changed course from their originally announced plans and will now hold both “face-to-to face + virtual instruction” as well as “virtually only” for at least the first half of the school year.
Before I share our plans going forward, let me share this: As I have observed the state and local education departments, I have seen nothing short of an amazing group of professionals working cooperatively and diligently to manage a challenging and continuously changing situation. The local schools, along with our county officials, had an impossible task and made impossible decisions. We support the decisions that have been made and we cheer on our local schools. We will also continue to foster good communication with our friends in public education.
That said, we are going to stay on our path of gradually and responsibly opening services and learning to live in this new world.
A gradual and responsible opening has been our path since day one and we haven’t changed. When the governor moved us to orange in May we could’ve opened back at full capacity, but we didn’t. We stayed on our plan for a gradual and responsible opening.
And, we are staying with our plan for a gradual and responsible opening now. Because, for as much as we identify with, and support, our colleagues in public education, we are different:
The public schools have 250+ “switches” that need to be adjusted each time the COVID Compass changes. We don’t. We have just eight.
The public schools have students in their buildings for 40+ hours per week. We don’t. Half our students are here for just 1 hour per week - that’s 4% of the time they would spend in school.
Many of our public schools have aging facilities. Our facilities are equipped with modern and massive air handling capacity.
K-12 education is compulsory. Participation in our programs voluntary.
It is because of those differences, our comprehensive planning, as well as the CDC acknowledgment of the benefits of in-person instruction, that we stay on our path of gradual and responsible reopening. According to the CDC, social interaction among children in grades K-12 is important not only for emotional wellbeing, but also for children’s language, communication, social, and interpersonal skills. A weekly dance class supports all of those functions as well as addressing the need for physical activity and creative expression.
On August 31st we will open our fall dance classes. The next week beginning on September 9th we will begin our Academic Preschool classes. As our season gets closer to starting, we’ll release more information about the details of our plans. What we’ve currently developed is below.
We hope you enjoy the next few weeks of summer as we ALL learn how to move forward in this new world.
Much love and Purell,
Amy Simkins