Entities respond to Coronavirus spread
Snyder child care centers have been busy taking extra precautions to avoid potentially spreading COVID-19/Coronavirus.
While most centers have remained open thus far, Jumpstart Enrichment for Tomorrow’s Students has closed with Snyder ISD in order to better prepare for children to return. JETS plans to reopen on Monday with new policies in place.
“During this time we’ve done a deep cleaning and disinfecting of all of the classrooms, the whole facility, and some training and reviewing with the staff precautions regarding infectious disease,” JETS Director Lori Butler said. “When children return, we have a plan that everyone will be screened. There will be a pre-screening via phone for parents and such, and as the children come in, their temperatures will be taken.”
Currently, JETS staff plan to allow staff, parents, children and service providers such as speech therapists, law enforcement and Child Protective Services to enter the facility.
Butler said that JETS will attempt to limit parent interaction in the facility as much as possible, though they were still in the process of figuring out how best to implement those plans.
“It is possible that by the end of the day we may have a plan that parents will not enter and will pick up children at the curb,” she said. “A lot of it is still fluid. We’re coordinating with Snyder ISD, and if the ISD closes, we will close.”
Caterpillar Corner and Kids Under Construction have both remained open, and Caterpillar Corner Director Makai Diaz said staff members are doing their best to ensure a clean and safe environment for the children.
“We have extra precautions at pick-up and drop-off,” she said. “Our children are being dropped off outside the facility at the door, and we’re taking the temperature of every child that walks through the door. We’re denying access into the building with anyone that has a temperature of 100 degrees or above. Every staff member is also screened before they walk in.”
Caterpillar Corner is also restricting parents from entering the building, and there are strict pick-up and drop-off times.
“There is no early pick-up or late drop-off. The earliest we will open the doors to start taking kids back out to parents, and we will take them all the way out to the door, will be between three and five,” Diaz said. “The only people allowed to enter the facility are staff. No parents or anyone else.”
Diaz said that she and other staff members are enforcing extra hand-washing, sanitizing, cleaning of toys and wiping down of door handles.
“We’re just being as careful as we can,” she said.
Kids Under Construction Director Donna Ramirez said that her facility was doing its best to follow new state mandates, including restricting entry only to necessary personnel and requiring pick-up.