Update to School Closure in Response to COVID-19

To the CCC Community,

We hope that you and your families are healthy and safe, and adapting as well as possible to these challenging times.

We want to update you on CCC’s closure. In our last communication we announced our decision to close through March 27. We are now extending that closure through the end of April. We continue to monitor the situation and look forward to reopening as soon as it is safe to do so. At the same time, we must all recognize that it is possible that the closure will need to be extended again.

The CCC will not charge tuition while we are closed. This means that your account will show a credit for a portion of your paid March tuition, and you will not be billed for April tuition.

During this closure we are providing full salary and benefits to teachers and other staff, and they are working from home to the extent possible. We are developing creative ways for them to support learning and provide activity ideas to you remotely.

As a community, we can be proud that we are able to continue to pay our teachers, at a time when many small organizations are finding that they are not able to weather this storm. CCC has worked hard over the years to prepare (financially and otherwise) for an emergency such as the one we face now. At the same time, we are a small, independent, non-profit organization, and our reserves will not last indefinitely.

For this reason we are asking our families to consider donating all or a portion of the tuition you would have paid during the closure, so that CCC can continue to support our teachers and staff during this difficult time. Of course, these donations are fully tax-deductible. If your tuition is on auto-pay, don’t change it! We will treat your April payment as a donation. Or, if you usually pay by check, you can mail your donation to the address below. If you’d like to donate all or a portion of your credited March tuition, contact Tiffany at tiffanyc@caltech.edu.

We recognize that each family’s situation is different, but if you feel able to contribute please do. If we all pull together, we believe that our community of teachers and families will emerge from this crisis with renewed strength and commitment to each other and the CCC.

Thank you and be well!

The Board of Trustees
Children’s Center at Caltech
1200 E. California Blvd. MC 1-133
Pasadena, CA 91125

CCC School Closure in Response to COVID-19

March 14, 2020

To the CCC Community,

This morning the Board, together with the CCC administrative team, held a meeting to address the COVID-19 situation. At this time there are no known or suspected cases of COVID-19 infection at the CCC. However, as a precaution, we have made the difficult decision to close the Center Tuesday March 17 through Friday, March 27. We will re-evaluate the closure decision at the end of that period, and we will be in touch with you about any decisions made at that point, or earlier as events warrant. As this is a rapidly changing situation, we want you to be aware that the closure may need to be extended.

This closure is in line with recommendations from the Los Angeles County Office of Education, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, and with the actions taken Friday by surrounding school districts, independent schools, and a number of preschools and childcare centers.

We are committed to protecting the health and safety of the entire CCC Community and we believe that by acting decisively now, we have the best chance to protect our staff and families from infection. By closing the Center now, we can also contribute to the critical national effort to slow the growth of new cases in the larger community and beyond.

We realize that closing the Center is disruptive to both parents and children, and places an additional burden on families at an already difficult time. We ask for your understanding, and trust that we made this decision only after it became apparent that the alternatives were inadequate. The March tuition for the period of closure will be credited against your April tuition bill. The Center staff will be doing administrative work and will be paid during the closure.

The Center will be open as usual Monday, in part to provide families and teachers with time to prepare the children for the closure, and for parents to make alternative arrangements. Families should plan to retrieve any items from the classrooms that they will need during the closure. After Monday, the Center will be closed. However, the CCC administrative team will be available to answer your questions by email or phone.

We will continue to keep you informed, as the COVID-19 situation is changing rapidly, and changes in our plans may occur. Thank you for your patience and support during this challenging time.

The CCC Board of Trustees

ECSTEM and Community Playthings

Thank you so much for your support of our continued professional growth! We understand how difficult it is to make childcare plans, but this conference ultimately benefits the children by providing us cutting edge educational workshops and speakers.

Here is another example of some of the many benefits the CCC has in hosting this unique and rich learning experience.

We bring together vendors from the field to display their most current and relevant materials. Community Playthings has been a vendor for many years and in lieu of paying for the exhibitor fee, they bring their best, and we bring that to the center for the children. This year, they brought us the outdoor set below, which has already found a home in the toddler yard!