Some preschools and daycare centers in the region were not affected by Sunday’s emergency closure of public schools due to the COVID-19 epidemic. Staff have had to decide whether to stay open for working families, or to follow suit and close to reduce opportunities for spreading the virus.
Peterborough’s Monadnock Community Early Learning Center was still open as of Tuesday. Executive Director Judy Watkins said the center serves about 40 children, and although enrollment is a little down, they continue to serve the children of parents who were unable to stay home from work. In response to the epidemic, Watkins said the staff take the temperature of children when they arrive, and every two hours throughout the day. “If they have a cough, fever, diarrhea, or vomiting, they have to go home immediately,” she said, a stricter version of the facility’s previous policy. Watkins said that with the additional precautions the staff were taking, she expects to be able to stay open barring an order from the Governor, or if they have a suspected case of the virus.
The Club Rec Before School program run by the Jaffrey Parks and Recreation Department has been suspended, as well as all of the Department’s other programs and events. Programs will tentatively resume April 6, Parks and Recreation Director Renee Sangermano wrote, but parks remain open in the meantime. “We ask that all member of the public practice social distancing and other CDC recommendations while you are out in the parks,” she wrote. “We will be posting recreational ideas you can do safely at home on our Facebook page.”
Jaffrey’s Whirlybirds Early Care and Education remains open. “In addition, I have written to NH Licensing to see if we can expand our ratio to temporarily take on a few more children during this time of need,” owner Amie Patterson wrote on the childcare center’s Facebook page. She wrote that she would post photos of everyday activities for families with children out of school to do at home, and offered support to parents struggling with the stressors of the epidemic.
The Robin’s Nest Nature Preschool in Peterborough closed when the ConVal School District announced its closure, Director Roz Hanchett said, because the preschool typically follows the School District’s calendar and snow days. “A lot of my staff have kids in public school,” in addition, she said. “We’re lucky, we have about 30 families but almost all of them have a stay at home parent or a parent who could work from home.” she said, and that there hadn’t been much pressure from parents to keep the daycare open. She said she hoped to reopen on March 30, but would survey families closer to that date to see how many were prepared to send their kids back.
Kids Club LLC remains open in Jaffrey, Director Jennifer Dixon said. The daycare typically has 35 kids on a regular day, but numbers are down this week after several families decided to keep their children home, she said. Owner Renee Poirot said she is following the Governor’s request that childcares stay open so long as it remains safe. She said they’re doing their best to provide accommodations for as long as they’re able, and currently have space for a few more school-aged children. Kids Club is following the COVID-19 guidelines from the CDC and the state licensing bureau, Poirot said. Every morning she comes in early and wipes down all surfaces, doorknobs and toilets with bleach and returns again during the children’s rest time. “Teachers do this constantly anyway,” she said. Staff are not taking children’s temperatures, Poirot said, but they are watching them overall to make sure they’re maintaining their regular energy levels. “If they seem off, we would immediately take their temperature,” she said. Staff also ask parents if the families have traveled in the past 14 days, or if their child has a cough or fever, she said.
The Children’s Garden Daycare and Preschool in Rindge is still open, Brooke Bennett said. The family daycare typically only has six children, she said, but numbers halved as closures due to COVID-19 took hold. Bennett said she received a text on Sunday night from the state licensing board encouraging day cares to remain open even as schools in the state closed. “Unless they say to close, then I will most likely remain open for the time being.” The epidemic hasn’t changed any of the daycare’s hygiene protocol, Bennett said, as she’s always followed safety and health guidelines, and asks children with coughs or runny noses to stay home.
The Dublin Community Preschool remains open. A post on the facility’s Facebook page from Saturday said “After careful review of information and much consideration, Dublin Community Preschool and Childcare Center has made the decision to remain open at this time.”
Peterborough’s Happy Valley School announced on its Facebook page that it would be closed beginning on Wednesday, with a tentative return date of April 6.