Dear SCS Community,

As I have at other times during the pandemic, I wanted to take a moment to update everyone on our status as a school.  I know that all educational institutions are under stress this year as we plan for the school year ahead, but our population has its special challenges.  The children in our care are entirely unvaccinated and we therefore take special precautions to keep everyone safe.  Fortunately we live in an area of the country where vaccinations are high and community spread is low, but we do not feel this is the time to completely let down our guard.  We recognize that the Delta Variant is real, and could affect our ability to live our mission and offer our critically important services.

 

The systems and policies that have worked for us throughout the year are still at our disposal and although we are not following all of them, we can reintroduce them at a moment’s notice.  We continue to mask all faculty indoors, keep classes separated as we should, are careful about adults entering the building, continue to take the children’s temperatures on a regular basis, wash hands frequently, and get classes outside as much as possible.

 

At the beginning of the summer we loosened a number of policies too.  We moved screening to the classroom doors within the building, instituted parent check-in on phones, removed the mask mandates outside for teachers, and allowed combining of classes in certain settings and at certain times.  We also allow parents (masked) into the building so the ritual of walking the kids through the school to their teachers has returned.  All in all we have had no cases amongst children and very few among faculty. 

 

In this atmosphere the summer has been entirely enjoyable for all involved.  The school-age Summer PEAK classes have been in session at Little Harbour School, and the children at the Community Campus have also loved their play outside.  Faculty and administrators have found time for vacation days during July and August, and everyone is looking forward to new classes and new children in September.  Our oldest students will be moving on to Middle School and our 5yr olds will be entering Kindergarten in the weeks ahead.

 

Our greatest struggle has been finding new teachers, but it has not been for lack of trying!  Many industries are suffering to hire workers and education is no exception.  Fortunately there are representatives, activists, and lobbyists working hard to encourage the State of New Hampshire to help improve our workforce overall. You can help by making direct referrals of teachers to us in either our Early Childhood or PEAK programs, (PEAK teachers can be hired at age 16 and start at $15/hr for after school work), and contacting your legislative representatives to underscore the current crisis.

 

Thank you for continuing to believe in us through this difficult time.  Special thanks goes out to those parents, Board members, grandparents, foundations, and friends who contributed to our school in our times of greatest need.  We expect in due course for the pandemic situation to resolve, but in the meantime, we will do everything we can to keep our school going strong.  Keeping all our children and faculty safe is still our primary goal, and we are confident that we can continue to achieve that.

 

Regards,

Peter B. Gilmore

Executive Director

 

Referrals:

Early Childhood: Alicia Tonelli 603-422-8223 x116

After School PEAK: Jess DuBois 603-422-8223 x117