Carelot Children's Center
Letter from Larry Bevilacqua, CEO
News Bulletin
May 28, 2020
Dear Carelot Children’s Center Families,
I am reaching out to you all today to touch base on several issues. First, a covid -19 update, second a call for assistance and finally a thank you for your support.
As we all have been dealing with our ever changing world around us, Carelot has been doing it's best to be a consistent part of our families lives. We are proud to say that we have remained open throughout this crisis with personal and financial sacrifices. Our executive team has supported our sites, communities and families by working despite the inability to be paid. Our center staff, have braved the virus threat and worked through the many regulatory changes and health concerns. Our executive team fought to receive the PPP loan program and got all of our employees back to work. We continue to fight to receive the funds that will support our staff and first responders through the Cares Act. Our families and communities have supported our programs with continued tuition payments and donation of masks, gloves and other necessary supplies to keep our children and staff safe. As we continue to live with this new world, we have instituted required changes such as having a staff available for drop off and pick up daily to assess temperatures at the door and greet our families. We have reduced both group and ratio sizes. We have added additional cleaning schedules and staff to make sure our programs stay clean and virus free. We will continue to do all that we need to so that we can be here for our families and our communities.
Now I need to come to you all again for your support. As we face these trying times we must remain fiscally sound. This means that we must make up for the extra staff costs, supply costs and reduced enrollment by adding a Covid - 19 fee to our tuition rates. I must let you know that effective August 1, 2020 our rates were increasing as part of the Minimum wage increases that will be going into affect this year as I discussed last year for current families and July 1, 2020 for new enrollments.
In addition, due to Covid - 19 we will be adding a $25.00 a week fee to offset the costs incurred to deal with the virus and it's new regulations and changes beginning the week of June 29th (June 26th billing). This fee will go away once we can return to normal practices affecting group size, center capacity and other measures affecting the cost of managing our centers. We know that this is difficult, but without this fee, we also know, that we would not be able to remain open. We are fighting for the bail out of Child Care in America that several US senators have proposed and we hope that the country sees the need for this so that we do not have to place this burden on the families in need. Until then, however, we must come to our families to ensure that we will remain open in the short term and thus be around for the long term.
The new rate sheet is attached and the weekly Covid-19 fee will be added seperately, so that we can easily remove that either when funds are received from the government to support our programs or when the regulations are returned to normal.
Thank you for all the support that you all have provided to our staff and communities. Those families of essential employees and front line workers have been able to continue to receive care in a safe nurturing environment. My team and I will continue to fight for support for our families and our services with local, state and national government. We will continue to find ways to help you cut these costs and will do every application and grant program that we can find. Please know that these processes do take time to create, manage and then finally fund. We are diligently working with the OEC and state government to get the funds all of our first responders and essential employees need to support their child care costs.
We have proudly served our communities for over 23 years and look forward to continuing to do so for the next quarter century. As always, thank you for your support and your trust in helping build strong foundations for a life time of learning in our children and your families.
Larry J. Bevilacqua, CEO
"Building Strong Foundations for a Lifetime of Learning"
Email: adminassist@carelot.net
Website: www.carelot.net
Location: 315 Flanders Road, East Lyme, CT, USA
Phone: 860-739-1993
Facebook: www.facebook.com/carelotctr