The Best & Safest Dance Experience
The staff at MDS has always sought to provide the safest situation possible for our families. We want you to feel comfortable entrusting us with your precious children just as you have before. Last year we installed top of the line air filters in the HVAC in each classroom that removes 99.99% of the toxins every 30 mins and disinfects the air through our entire system. We have also devised a plan for the safety, health and happiness of our dancing families while we return to the studio. Please read below…
- Class sizes will be drastically limited according to room size and will always be well under the 50% capacity.
- Everyone is required to wear a mask at all times while inside Michele’s Dance Studio.
- Distancing six feet from each other will be practiced as much as possible from the time students enter until they are dismissed. Bags and water bottles are also distanced so that water breaks are distanced. Certain activities or moments of choreography may involve briefly sharing closer spaces. In down times students to tend to gravitate toward each other, but students are given constant loving reminders to give each other space.
- No touch/automatic hand sanitizers are installed in each classroom.
- Class start and end times are staggered when possible to avoid more than one group entering or exiting the building at the same time. Groups will also be utilizing the different entrances and exits according to their classroom.
- Registration is occurring only online and payment transactions are occurring only online and over the phone. Parents are requested to stay outside. Children will be escorted to and from the parking lot where we will have markings to ensure distancing can be observed. While we wait for drop off and pick up.
- If a child or a family member in the home is not feeling well or is showing symptoms of covid then students are asked to stay home. If a child has been exposed to someone exhibiting symptoms or that has tested positive for Covid they are asked to stay home and check and follow the CDC and local protocols before coming back to class.
- Parents should monitor their children and verify their temperature on the day of class. If your child’s temperature is high—stay home.
- Teachers will wash hands in between classes, will remain six feet away from students and will avoid touching students during the act of receiving, teaching or dismissing students. (For younger students there will be times when they need help with a shoelace, putting their mask on etc. Every effort is made to keep these moments of close proximity minimal and brief. Please help us and have their shoes on and tied before coming inside.
- 10.Correspondence with our dance families will happen by phone or email. Parents should not come in to the studio unless you have a specific need. This includes the common areas and hallway.
- Changing rooms will not be available. Students should change clothing before arriving.
- Students are encouraged to use the bathroom before coming to the studio. The bathroom will be for emergencies only. The bathroom in our studio has newly installed automated hand towel and hand soap dispensers. It also has a one touch toilet seat cover dispenser and a sanitary no touch toilet paper dispenser.
- Any child who complains of any type of discomfort or illness will be isolated and is expected to be picked up immediately.
- A special I Wave air filtration system with constant disinfectant throughout the ventilation network has been installed.
For Michele's Dance Studio, safety has always come first. We have been researching and studying many options and procedures. We have participated in webinars from the dance education community as well as the pediatric medicine community. According to our latest webinar with local pediatric physicians dance is considered a low risk activity, and we are taking as many steps as possible to further minimize the risk of getting together in the classrooms. Although the NJ state guidelines for dance studios have been lifted, we are still following almost all of the safety protocols laid out last year in executive order 157 to make sure we are beyond compliant to make our environment as safe as possible for our dancers and their families!
With notice, safety procedures are subject to change.
Truly,
Michele Sandler & Ross Sandler, Michele's Dance Studio