E-News, The CTC Connection: March 2018

March 2018

The CTC Connection

AN E-NEWSLETTER OF CTC ACADEMY

Achieving excellence in creative education and therapies for 68 years.

Welcome to Our E-Newsetter!

Parent Update from the Executive Director

March 2018

Dear CTC Parents,

Recently we had an exceptionally late decision in opting to close for a snow day. A number of parents had questions about how we conduct the decision making process. Here are the basic steps we follow to make these decisions:

A team of five members of senior management (that includes me), which we affectionately call the “snow patrol”, monitors the weather forecast on an ongoing basis. There are two types of scenarios where the snow patrol gets involved - snow or freezing conditions.
If there is evidence that road surfaces will be freezing up at any time prior to or during the school day, we contact our snow removal contractor and instruct them to rock salt all the walkways and road surfaces on both campuses. If it appears to be exceptionally dangerous, we may also close the school, but that is rare.
If there is evidence that we may have a snow storm or other harsh weather conditions, as a first step, we again instruct contractor to rock salt all surfaces. We also check the web sites of the public schools in the area. If either the Oakland or Fair Lawn public schools intend to be close, we will follow suit in short order.
We try, whenever possible, to make a decision as to whether we need to (1) close for the day or (2) have a delayed opening, by 8pm the evening before.
If the conditions are unclear at that point, we typically reconvene at 5am and try to make a decision at that time.
We also try to make a decision on an early closing no later than 10:30am on the day in question.

If the public schools decide to remain open, it doesn’t mean we will do the same. As you know, many of our students are very medically fragile and we will try to “err on the side of caution” and are usually more likely to close than a typical school. Also, when we close we do so at both campuses. Remember that we have children traveling to us from over 60 towns and some at great distances. Also, the transportation and staffing challenges of only opening one campus would be enormous.

Finally, the decision by the Oakland Public Schools to close at 6:30am was very unusual. The members of the snow patrol intend to redouble our efforts and try our best to make our decisions by 5am so you have at least a bit more notice.

As always, you can contact me anytime by phone at 201-797-7440 ext. 3258 or by email at kberger@ctcacademy.org .

Regards,

Ken Berger, Executive Director

Mark Your Calendars

March: Bake Sale to support the School Store (@OAK)

March 6: 1PM dismissal for student (@OAK + @FL)

March 8: 9:30AM Dinner Dance Meeting (@FL)

March 9: 6:30PM Family Yoga (@OAK)

Click HERE for details

*babysitting for siblings under age 5 available upon request

March 13: CPR Certification Class (@OAK)

Click HERE for details

*babysitting available upon request

March 17: GoodWill Shamrock Shuffle 5K

Please join us! CTC Academy will be one of the beneficiaries of this event!

Click HERE for Details

Click HERE to Register

March 19: Basketball Tournament (@OAK)

March 21: Outragehisss Pets (@FL)

March 27: The Catastrophic Illness in Children’s Relief Fund Info Night

Clicker HERE for details

*babysitting available upon request

March 30: School Closed for Religious Observance (@OAK + @FL)

CTC Academy's 2018-19 School Year Calendar is now available HERE

Visit Our Academic Year Holiday Calendars

Visit Our School Monthly Activity Calendar

From The Health Office

CTC Academy views health and safety as a priority not just during flu season but all year long. We have a standing protocol for ongoing cleaning and disinfection that includes these requirements. All products meet EPA standards and are school-use approved. We clean all chairs, toys and equipment frequently. This includes cleaning shared equipment and items before they are used by another student. Commonly touched areas such as door knobs, light switches, telephones, etc. are cleaned on a daily basis. We also stress the importance of hand washing for both staff and students. If there is a report of communicable disease on your child’s campus, you will receive an email notification. Please communicate with your campus nurses if your child is ill. We appreciate your cooperation in keeping everyone healthy!

CTC Academy firmly believes in emergency preparedness. Staff receive training on emergency plans such as evacuations and in-building lockdowns. Every room has the emergency plans and egress maps posted in a highly visible location. Each classroom and department have an evacuation backpack with emergency supplies that may be needed in an off-site evacuation. Also, each classroom and department has a walkie-talkie to aid in communication in these circumstances. Every month, the entire campus participates in an evacuation drill (fire drill) and a lock down drill. Theses drills are random and not pre-announced to staff. Once a year, each campus practices an off site evacuation drill to the predetermined location. The Fair Lawn campus evacuates to Warren Point School and the Oakland Campus evacuates to the Reed Academy. These drills are conducted under the guidance and supervision of the town's emergency services.