Stay at Home order: Shyne Closed 3/30 to 4/10/20

March 24, 2020

Dear Parents

Gov. Jay Inslee issued a temporary “stay-at-home” order Monday evening , directing Washingtonians not to leave their homes — unless for crucial activities — in order to slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel corona virus. 

The new rule will go into effect Monday evening and last through April 6. Non-essential businesses that are still open will have 48 hours to close, and won’t be able to reopen until at least April 8

Now that we have a "stay at home order" in place, we need to make a decision. By the terms of the order we could stay open.  The health of our Shyne School community is our primary concern.  I have spoken with my staff and they feel a two week closure is the social responsible thing to do.  We hope this will help slow or stop the virus.  We will stop childcare March 25th and have teachers clean all surfaces, toys and equipment on March 26th and 27th.  Currently our goal is to reopen after the spring break on Monday, April 13, 2020.  We will be bagging all cubby items and ask parents to take them home to wash, upon your return, so please plan to bring a clean extra set of clothes.

As we said in a prior email our goal in coming through this is to maintain as much continuity of staff and clientele as possible. It has taken a lot of years to bring together such a wonderful diverse group of people.  As we have stated before  "If we do close, with staff my intention is to continue paying them at 50% as long as possible."  The school could have zero income.  As the owner, I will be picking this up.  A number of families have expressed a desire to continue to fund the school at 50%, and some to 100%, of their usual tuition. I completely understand that this is a very fluid situation. All of this generosity will go directly to the staff.  (The Director is tracking this for each family.) This expression of appreciation for the staff and school is humbling.

In a previous email we stated:

To help families financially if we remain open,  but you choose to self quarantine:

We will offer a 50% discount to parents that continue to remain enrolled.  Starting March 16 to April 24th per the Governors school closure dates at this time.  With a reassessment if those dates change in the future.

If we close at anytime:

Parents will not be charged for tuition.

If you choose to give a months' notice to terminate services:

When you give notice to terminate service you give up your child's classroom spot.  For example:  If you give notice on Monday, March 16th the month's notice would start April 16.  You would be required to pay the 50% tuition until April 16th and then your spot would be terminated.   If you terminate your enrollment it  also cancel's your future registration you have submitted for summer or fall.  The director's job will be to work to fill those spots with families from our waiting list to ensure our business remain viable after the Covid-19 virus is no longer a pandemic.

With our closure ( 3/30 to 4/10) April tuition will not be charged for the first two weeks, April 1 to April 10th unless you have expressed interest in continuing to support the teachers with a 50% to 100% contribution to tuition.  Please send an e-mail with that request if you want to do that, and have not already let me know.

We plan to re-open April 13, 2020 and tuition will resume to 100% for families that return April 13th and at 50% if families choose to self quarantine until the end of April.

If you are worried about tuition payments and feel you may need to terminate, please reach out and talk to us so we can figure out individual plans.  Our goal is not to make a profit during this time, but to remain a viable business and keep our staff and families together until the pandemic has passed.

Please send a NEW email to director@shyneschool.com, do not hit replay, so that the director can track all the information and not miss how you wish to proceed.

Bill Shyne, Owner

Katrina Brooke, Director

The Shyne School Staff and Teachers