March 16, 2020

Dear Parents,

What a time we are walking through right now. Our leadership team has spent considerable time over the last few weeks reading and researching best practices for this unprecedented time in our history. 

As many of you know, the school was opened 50 years ago with the intention of catering to working parents as well as providing a world class education for children from infants to elementary school. While we have tried our best to allow those on the front lines to continue working as long as possible, we have now come to an impasse. With the President’s new recommendation of keeping social gatherings at 10 people or less, along with his recommendation that all schools close in an effort to slow the transmission of the COVID-19, unfortunately, we will not be able to accommodate the 150+ students that have sought enrollment this week. For the first time in 50 years, we will be forced to close our doors from March 17th until April 5th. For Yorba Linda, our school will remain closed until April 12th. Additionally, no Recess Care will be available during Spring Break. Depending on the status of the COVID situation, we may be able to open sooner or have to extend longer.  However, our virtual learning will be in full swing by March 30th for our Fullerton students and March 23rd for our Yorba Linda students.

Our teachers and administrators have been diligently working on remote learning software that will allow all children, from Fullerton Rooms 1 - 11 and Yorba Linda Rooms 1 - 4, to continue their studies despite the closure. We will be hosting staff development days all week to prepare materials, record videos, and transition from a Montessori classroom to a remote classroom while learning to use sites such as Google hangouts, Zoom, and our new online platform. Please be on the lookout for an email from your Department Director by Thursday, March 19th with an invitation to join the new site.

We cannot apologize enough for the inconvenience this may cause you or your family. If you are a first responder and have absolutely no care available for your child, please reach out via email to your Department Director and we will do our best to work with you on a solution. 

We also want to acknowledge and thank those of you who have extended your words of encouragement, support, and truly made us feel a strong sense of community while we navigate these new waters.  We wish we could express how much your kind words and gratitude lifted our spirits. We would be remiss if we didn’t recognize our amazing staff members for coming in and continuing to teach, clean, and care for your children. All we ask of you is to please be patient with us as we take on this new challenge of remote learning. There will certainly be bumps in the road as our Montessori Teachers become YouTube Sensations!  We are already getting excited about starting this new chapter as our teachers map out new ways of teaching while keeping our lessons fun and engaging! You may see them cooking, acting, singing, dancing, and performing mind-blowing science experiments!

If you have not picked up your supplemental homework packet (Yorba Linda and Fullerton), please come to the Fullerton location (front porch at the main house) on March 17th between 2 - 5pm.

If you have any questions, please email Ms. Claire.

Sincerely,

The IvyCrest Board of Directors