Decatur, GA — While there’s uncertainty about the upcoming school year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one local city of Decatur school plans to resume some operations on June 15.

Sarah Garland, the Director of Early Childhood for City Schools of Decatur, sent a letter to parents elaborating on the school’s plans. In March, Garland disclosed that she had tested positive for COVID-19.

“The College Heights 0-3 tuition-paying program will resume operations on June 15,” Garland said in a letter to parents. “We will be open 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. I will be sending updated procedures and expectations in an email early next week. Included in the email will be additional information around tuition charges and payments. I, along with our school nurse and instructional coach, will be holding a virtual parent meeting to address any questions or concerns prior to June 15.”

In the follow-up email, Garland explained how the school plans to handle reopening.

Each child arriving at College Heights will undergo a daily health screen that will include a temperature check and questions for the child’s parent. Any child with a temperature of 100 or more will not be allowed to enter. All staff at the center will be required to wear face masks.

Here is her full email to parents with the relevant attachments:

Dear Parent,

This goal of this email is to provide you with additional information regarding the reopening of the College Heights 0-3 tuition-paying program. A virtual question and answer meeting will be offered on June 10th from 12:00-1:30 p.m. to address any outstanding questions or concerns. Meeting details will be emailed closer to the June 10th meeting date.

First, I thank you for your patience. The safety and wellness of our students and staff are the district’s top priorities. The decision to reopen was not taken lightly and brings with it many changes in current operating procedures. I kindly ask for your patience and flexibility as we work to implement a new “norm”. Attached you will find several documents to guide you through our reopening. Please read the documents closely and bring any questions and concerns to our virtual meeting.

1) College Heights ECLC COVID-19 Operations Plan, Phase 1. The safety procedures and guidance are for the daily operations of College Heights during the ongoing  COVID-19 pandemic.  Procedures are based on recommendations made by the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Please note district leadership is continually monitoring the recommendations from the CDC as well as state and local governments and at any time College Heights ECLC may be required to close again due to changes in the pandemic landscape.

2) Operating Plan- Quick Reference. This document provides a summarized version of the updated operations plan.

3) Face Covering- Cloth Mask- This document provides guidelines for parents wearing cloth masks/face coverings.

4) Face Covering- Surgical Mask- This document provides guidelines for parents wearing surgical masks/face coverings.

5) Health Assessment Questions- This document provides you with a series of questions that will be asked upon arrival. The questions allow our team to assess the child’s COVID risk status.

Regardless of whether or not a parent opts to bring their child back to school when we reopen on June 15, parents are expected to pay full tuition. There will no longer be an option to request a financial hardship. Payments will be drafted based on the method you have selected on your financial agreement. Please contact Caretha Hall ([email protected]) if you need to change the payment method.

Your child’s teacher will be sending an email requesting all families to communicate their intent to return on June 15th. This information is critical in helping us create a staffing plan. We are just gathering data for the first two weeks of reopening. We understand intents may change for the month of July.

Lastly, this week will be the last week of virtual instruction. Teachers will be using their time between now and June 12th to plan for the reopening.

I hope this information is helpful. I understand you may have additional questions, Hopefully, you can join our virtual meeting on June 10th. The meeting will be recorded and uploaded to our school website for any parent unable to attend.

Thank you,

Sarah Garland

Attachments:
 Health_Assessment_Questions.pdf (50.8 KB)
 College_Heights_COVID_Response_Plan-families-_Option_1_(1).pdf(191.7 KB)
 Operating_Plan-_Parent_quick_reference.pdf (154.1 KB)
 Face_Covering-_Cloth_Mask_(1).pdf (157.9 KB)
 Face_Covering-_Surgical_Mask.pdf (158.5 KB)

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