Hello Everybody!
Here is our quarterly COVID update for Spring 2021, with some information that will help you plan into the Fall season. In this update:
- Make-up week – have you confirmed?
- Recital a ‘go’!
- Summer & Fall Lesson Registration starts soon – plan now.
- Important Re-Start Plan Updates
Make-Up Week – No Regular Lessons
You should have received our spring make-up schedule for the week of March 15-21, during which time there are no regular lessons. See the schedule below and confirm now:
Remember, if you do not call to indicate your availability or un-availability, you may lose your lesson. The next and final make-up period for the school year is the week of June 24-30, inclusive.
Recital May 2nd
We are going to have a virtual recital on May 2nd. In the year since the initial lockdown we have had opportunity and time to find a platform to use for this, and look forward to giving it a try. This will be available to anyone as a Facebook Live broadcast, as well as recorded for our archives. Stay tuned for more information about the platform, sign-up method, and times available on the day of.
Please mark this off in your calendars, even if as audience for one of the sessions. Watching live music is an integral and vital part of the music education process and we need your support at home to expose your students to this process. Remember, our sessions are short (~45m or less), so very easy to watch.
Summer & Fall Registration
As a result of COVID we are still going to be constrained in our travel and summer options this year. For this reason we are going to move up our traditional re-registration period to start in April rather than May to help give you a head-start in planning your summer efforts.
Remember, we are more flexible in the summer, so you can take weeks off, and you can have your lessons almost anywhere – digitally!
Priority re-registration will, as usual be 1 week in length, allowing you to keep your existing lesson time. After that week you will be able to switch times. We estimate the priority week will be April 12-16th.
Lesson length recommendations will be arriving with your spring lesson reports in the first week of April. Your teacher may recommend a longer lesson, and the summer is a great time to jump into that and accelerate development without the added school year schedules!
Re-Start Plan Updates
As you know, we have had an in-person re-start plan in place since August of last year. It is comprehensive, prioritizing safety, and takes a measured approach to re-starting our in-person services. Please refresh your familiarity with this plan now, as it applies to any in-person activity we will do through 2021 at a minimum.
We have decided to add one more very important criteria to our plan: Teachers will not begin teaching until they have been completely vaccinated. By doing this we are able to further minimize the likelihood that we are transmitting the virus.
Undoubtedly this will slow things down, but it does speak to a foundational belief we hold, which is that it is better to do it right than it is to do it now.
Home-on-Demand
Once we do start up with our in-person services we know that there will be a lot of sensitivity to interacting with other people if anyone feels sick, or has a runny nose, at least for a couple of years.
As a result, we have decided to offer Home-on-Demand service for the foreseeable future.
If you or anyone in your family don’t feel well, but could still have your lesson, just call the office, and we’ll do your lesson digitally that week. This will require that you reach a person, so you’ll need to be as proactive about this as possible.
You will also be able to use Home-on-Demand if there is a schedule conflict, bad weather, or any other factor that may make it hard for you to attend your lesson in any given week. We will also be able to do the same in the event of teacher illness, snowstorm, or power outage at our locations.
In short, Home-on-Demand service provides great new opportunities for convenience in accessing your lessons, combining the best of in-person with digital.