REGGIO RETURNS
Donation protected
COVID hit Reggio, hard.
The Great Pause of 2020 arrived in full force, closing our school program with zero notice. It completely washed our building of students, locked our teachers our of their familiar worlds, and refused us of income for 3 strong months.
Our government leaders prevented schools in our industry from accepting tuition of parents during this time. These leaders let us know when Reggio *does* become permitted to accept tuition from our parents, that unfortunately our ratios and overall capacity will remain consolidated to half capacity. So if we were licensed for 120 students, we are now max capped at 60.
Reggio and other child care centers are not allowed to have normal ratios, normal operating hours, and normal funds coming in. This reality is causing child care centers all over the nation to regrettably announce their permanent closure. Reggio suffered a huge loss during shutdown, and with these circumstances in place for our future operations, our school program is also projected to suffer greatly if we don't somehow pivot our operation to adapt.
Instead of laying down and accepting the seemingly inevitable fate of closing our program, our leadership team ponied up and realized the only way to survive these circumstances was to grow. If the state wants us to drop our ratios from 20 per room to 9 per room, it looks like we were going to need some more classrooms. If we wanted to be here for the long game, we knew we had to make some more space to spread out.... and quick.
Reggio spent the 3 month quarantine working extremely hard to begin our growth plan: donating time, money and brain power to make it possible for not only "some" students to return but to make it possible for every single child who wanted to return to have a seat to come home to. We made the decision to invest in our extra space, to turn free space into more classrooms. A risky decision, but with our situation as it stands... spreading out is the only way to survive as a business.
Post construction, we will have grown from 6 classrooms to 11. This means we have a solution for spreading our children out to safely support our state's social distancing regulations AND we will stand to have space to impact that many more students in the very near future when these regulations are lifted. We stand to leave a very large footprint in our community, our industry, and in the lives of many, many young children with the construction of new learning space for our students.
There is only one problem:
Due to the licensing standards for playground square footage to total capacity of children under the Maryland State Department of Education Office of Child Care Regulations, we have too small of an outdoor space to accommodate for the amount of students we *could* have with 11 classrooms of students. We have the physical outdoor space, the permit to install, and the permission to extend our playground an additional 1,000sf; however, we do not have the funds....
Reggio community, we need your help like never before. Your financial support in helping us raise these funds will help us build a new playground AND ultimately grant us our occupancy permission needed to open the new classrooms.
Reggio is requesting the support of our community to help us raise the appropriate funds to purchase the extension of our playground so we are officially able to be licensed for additional classrooms- new classrooms that we need if we plan on servicing more than 60 students with the current licensing standards since the state capacity cuts. We are asking for donations of $5, $10, $20, or $100 - any small amounts will make a big difference in our ability to reach our fundraising goals!
Your contribution will bring education to 5 more classrooms of students, jobs to 5-10 currently displaced educators, and help us fulfill our mission to eventually 80+ new children.
This is so much more than a playground fundraiser. This is Reggio's ability to pivot through the detrimental future that COVID is creating for us. We are collecting donations through June 15th- ironically Reggio's First Birthday. This will present our playground vendor with enough time to expedite an installation and inspection by the state before the 2020-2021 Academic School Year.
Your financial support will mean the future of Reggio. It is greatly appreciated by our program's past, present, and future. While we understand not everyone will be in a position to donate during these times, we ask everyone to help us share our fundraiser via social media platforms and email. This exposure will help us reach more people!
Thank you for your support and helping us reach our fundraising goals. Reggio is forever indebted to this relentless community.
The Great Pause of 2020 arrived in full force, closing our school program with zero notice. It completely washed our building of students, locked our teachers our of their familiar worlds, and refused us of income for 3 strong months.
Our government leaders prevented schools in our industry from accepting tuition of parents during this time. These leaders let us know when Reggio *does* become permitted to accept tuition from our parents, that unfortunately our ratios and overall capacity will remain consolidated to half capacity. So if we were licensed for 120 students, we are now max capped at 60.
Reggio and other child care centers are not allowed to have normal ratios, normal operating hours, and normal funds coming in. This reality is causing child care centers all over the nation to regrettably announce their permanent closure. Reggio suffered a huge loss during shutdown, and with these circumstances in place for our future operations, our school program is also projected to suffer greatly if we don't somehow pivot our operation to adapt.
Instead of laying down and accepting the seemingly inevitable fate of closing our program, our leadership team ponied up and realized the only way to survive these circumstances was to grow. If the state wants us to drop our ratios from 20 per room to 9 per room, it looks like we were going to need some more classrooms. If we wanted to be here for the long game, we knew we had to make some more space to spread out.... and quick.
Reggio spent the 3 month quarantine working extremely hard to begin our growth plan: donating time, money and brain power to make it possible for not only "some" students to return but to make it possible for every single child who wanted to return to have a seat to come home to. We made the decision to invest in our extra space, to turn free space into more classrooms. A risky decision, but with our situation as it stands... spreading out is the only way to survive as a business.
Post construction, we will have grown from 6 classrooms to 11. This means we have a solution for spreading our children out to safely support our state's social distancing regulations AND we will stand to have space to impact that many more students in the very near future when these regulations are lifted. We stand to leave a very large footprint in our community, our industry, and in the lives of many, many young children with the construction of new learning space for our students.
There is only one problem:
Due to the licensing standards for playground square footage to total capacity of children under the Maryland State Department of Education Office of Child Care Regulations, we have too small of an outdoor space to accommodate for the amount of students we *could* have with 11 classrooms of students. We have the physical outdoor space, the permit to install, and the permission to extend our playground an additional 1,000sf; however, we do not have the funds....
Reggio community, we need your help like never before. Your financial support in helping us raise these funds will help us build a new playground AND ultimately grant us our occupancy permission needed to open the new classrooms.
Reggio is requesting the support of our community to help us raise the appropriate funds to purchase the extension of our playground so we are officially able to be licensed for additional classrooms- new classrooms that we need if we plan on servicing more than 60 students with the current licensing standards since the state capacity cuts. We are asking for donations of $5, $10, $20, or $100 - any small amounts will make a big difference in our ability to reach our fundraising goals!
Your contribution will bring education to 5 more classrooms of students, jobs to 5-10 currently displaced educators, and help us fulfill our mission to eventually 80+ new children.
This is so much more than a playground fundraiser. This is Reggio's ability to pivot through the detrimental future that COVID is creating for us. We are collecting donations through June 15th- ironically Reggio's First Birthday. This will present our playground vendor with enough time to expedite an installation and inspection by the state before the 2020-2021 Academic School Year.
Your financial support will mean the future of Reggio. It is greatly appreciated by our program's past, present, and future. While we understand not everyone will be in a position to donate during these times, we ask everyone to help us share our fundraiser via social media platforms and email. This exposure will help us reach more people!
Thank you for your support and helping us reach our fundraising goals. Reggio is forever indebted to this relentless community.
Organizer
Candice Schoolman
Organizer
Hunt Valley, MD
