COVID-19 update
The Glen Montessori School is continuously monitoring the latest updates regarding the Coronavirus (COVID-19) from the Centers for Disease Control, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Allegheny Department of Health, Pennsylvania Department of Education.
At this time, The Glen continues to operate under normal conditions, with the following accommodations developed in conjunction with our school nurse and the Centers for Disease Control, Pennsylvania Department of Health and the ACHD:
• Parents are required to disclose any travel in your household from highly affected areas to the school administration. Based on the recommendations of the CDC, a medical excuse will be issued to the Glen student(s) in the household for the recommended 14-day incubation period.
• Similarly, parents are required to disclose any known additional personal exposure their household has had to COVID-19. This may include extended family members, work colleagues, friends/neighbors, etc. A medical excuse will be provided for the Glen student for the 14-day incubation period.
• Strictly enforce the school policy of all students and faculty being 24-hour symptom-free before returning to school
• Increased cleaning and disinfecting efforts to limit the spread of germs.
• Teachers are providing reminder lessons with our students regarding self-care skills such as:
–handwashing and proper handwashing methods
–coughing and sneezing into the elbow,
–proper use and disposal of tissues, and
–reminders to not touch mouths, eyes, and noses.
Recommendations for talking with your Glen student:
• Communicate carefully with children about what is going on.
— Children need factual, age-appropriate information about the potential seriousness of the disease and concrete instruction about how to avoid its spread.
— Remain calm. If a parent seems overly worried, a child’s anxiety may rise.
— Allow children to express their fears, and reduce anxiety by discussing positive preventive measures (see self-care skills discussed above).
• Provide reassurance. Health and school officials are working hard to ensure that people throughout the country stay healthy. Children are not high-risk and the majority of people with COVID-19 experience mild symptoms and recover
• Keep information simple and straightforward. Pittsburgh family physician and parenting expert Dr. Deborah Gilboa suggests asking the child what he/she has heard and believes. This animated video from BrainPOP is also a good place to start.
• Find opportunities to correct misinformation. It’s okay if you don’t know all the answers. Information is constantly changing. Please keep the dialogue with your child open.
• Reinforce that no one group is to blame. No group should be stereotyped as responsible for the virus, and bullying or racial discrimination will not be tolerated in our schools. This virus can affect anybody. This comic created by NPR can be a helpful tool.
American Montessori Conference Cancellation
Preemptively, The Glen canceled our faculty’s attendance at the American Montessori Conference in Dallas, Texas this weekend. We felt it was an unnecessary exposure that could lead to staffing challenges in weeks to come due to potential COVID-19 exposure. If our faculty were to be exposed to this virus as a group, nearly one-third of our faculty would be required, based on CDC recommendations, to be in isolation for 14 days. We felt this was too great of a risk to the health and safety of everyone involved.