Redeemer Preschool Opens with Some Adaptations

by Carol Sanger

In a good year, getting ready for a new school year takes planning, preparation and patience. In 2020, re-opening Redeemer Preschool took all of that and more. It took the combined efforts of Preschool Director, Denise Hoefling, her staff, and the Church of the Redeemer’s CARE (COVID Advisory and Response Experts) Team.

In a year unlike any other, the challenges were as unique as the circumstances.

“For the longest time we didn’t know if or when we’d be able to open,” Denise recalls, adding that there was a good deal of anxiety over the summer months when there were more questions than answers, more unknowns than knowns.

As director of the parish’s pre-school program for the past 18 years, Denise and her preschool team were used to coping with a lot of variables. But this was different. There were evolving rules and regulations that seemed to change by the day and layer one upon another. And everything was new… or almost everything.

“After sitting down with my staff over the summer and reviewing (with members of the CARE Team) what needed to be done in order to safely reopen school, we realized that we already had in place most of the cleaning protocols,” Denise said. So, after being able to gather a stockpile of Lysol sanitizing wipes in August, Denise and her team set about defining what the new school year would look like, from drop-off and pick-up to inside the classroom.

Temperature checks at drop-off and at periods throughout the day. Requirements that all students, teachers, and others who would be in or around classrooms wear masks. Social distancing in all classrooms and in the play yard. No shared supplies. Lots of extra hand washing. Constant wipe downs of all hard surfaces. The addition of mask hooks in all cubby holds. Conducting classes outside when possible. Holding a drive through “Meet and Greet” for parents rather than the traditional pre-opening orientation.

All of that required considerable planning and the ability to anticipate and pre-empt potential problems. Among the steps to ensure a safe re-opening were lengthening of the drop-off time and the adding of an additional class to reduce class sizes for each age group, from 2-year-olds through the pre-kindergarten 4 and 5-year-olds.

It also required ongoing communication with parents to assuage concerns, so Denise sent out informational updates throughout the summer.

In the end, some parents chose to keep their young children at home this year. Others wanted to wait until January before possibly sending their young ones to pre-school. Denise and her team understood and respected whatever choice parents made.

As for the children themselves, “they were amazingly adaptable.” But some extra steps were taken to ease their transition from home to school, some coming into an already strange environment for the first time, leaving the security of home only to be greeted by masked strangers.

Imagining how scary that would be for the children, Denise and the Redeemer Preschool team employed some creative measures…

Rather than a pre-opening meet-and-greet with teachers in the classroom, they organized a drive-by the week before school stated, where parents and children could meet teachers from their cars at a safe distance. (There was 100% participation, a first in the history of the school’s meet-and-greet events.)

And since teachers would be masked when classes resumed – with that being a scary prospect for most children – Denise and her team created posters with pictures of teachers both with and without masks and placed them in each classroom, as well as sending them to parents in advance, so they could familiarize their children with the teachers they would be meeting when the big day came.

So having done all that could be done in advance, and with only a month’s forewarning, the “big day” finally arrived on Monday, September 14th, with all 8 returning teachers and 40 students on hand to celebrate the start of a new year. (This was down from an average of 52-60 children in prior years and included a dozen children new to Redeemer Preschool.)

Drop-offs began at 8:45 a.m. and teachers gathered beforehand to be on hand to meet their children at their cars, thermometers in hand. Parents are not permitted in the school, so both drop-offs and pick-ups were handled in this manner. “There were some criers and one or two screamers, but on the whole, this went better than expected,” Denise recalls.

And when it came to wearing masks, there was another pleasant surprise. “We were not sure what to expect, but the kids have been really good about it. They all bring their own masks -- fancy ones with super-heroes or unicorns; it’s the new fashion accessory -- and we keep a supply of disposable ones on hand. They’ve been really good about keeping them on, even the 2-year olds!”

The favorite time of the school day – no surprise – is snack time, when children are allowed to remove their masks. “It’s the only time they get to see their classmates without masks,” Denise says. On occasions when a child may need an extra mask break, they’re allowed to go individually into the bathroom to remove their mask for a short breather. Outside play time is another mask-free opportunity, well supervised and regulated to provide for social distancing.

Looking back on the first several weeks of this preschool-during-COVID year, Denise and her team are satisfied that the extra vigilance has so far paid off. There have been no known cases of the virus.

“Parents have been thrilled,” she reports. It’s a good break for them and a good development experience for the child. Ironically, with virtual learning still taking place for many older siblings and parents still working from home, it’s the youngest family member who is the only one heading out in the morning. “It’s a world turned upside down,” she says with a laugh, “but overall, it has not been as difficult as we were expecting.”

That may be so, but it didn’t happen without some Herculean efforts by a great team -- plus a whole lot of planning, preparation and patience.