God is faithful and we persevere!
Currently we have 63 children enrolled. We have 1-Pre-K (4-year-old) class with 13 children, 1–3-year-old class with 14 children, 2-2-year-old classes with 18 children, 1-Toddler class with 11 children, and 2-Infant classes with 7 children. There are two more Infant students enrolled, one to begin in November and one in February. CLC’s outstanding reputation continues to bring in families, however, we are still feeling the effects of Covid-19 as well as the February freeze/pipe burst and subsequent closure. We are also facing a severe staffing shortage. All these factors led us to open only 1-Pre-K class, 1–3-year-old class and 1 Toddler class. We have a total of 16 staff members. This is 2 short of fully staffed.
February’s freeze and pipe break set our Covid-19 recovery back significantly. Thankfully, Rocky Baires and his team came to the rescue again and got the preschool back up and running. We reopened at the beginning of our summer session, June 1. The staff was supported financially during the closure to minister to their needs and to entice employees to return after we reopened. When we did open in June, we kept some of the safety protocols in place to continue to decrease the possible contamination of the building, staff, and children. Covid-19 numbers increased and when we opened for the fall session, we reinstated our mask mandate for everyone 2 years old and above. The 3 portable sinks we invested in last year have been an amazing help in controlling germs. Everyone entering CLC must first wash their hands. We are still limiting shared usage of space and are still unable to have Music class or the Soccer Shots and Stretch and Grow enrichment programs as we have in the past. Thankfully, we continue to have Chapel on Monday and Tuesday.
We increased tuition rates for the 2021-2022 session. We usually raise rates every few years. We are still very competitive in our pricing which helps attract families to our center. As a ministry, we feel it is important to keep prices relatively low to meet the needs of our community.
This has been another rough year for CLC, and the community we serve. My prayer is that we continue to meet a very desperate need for the people of Arlington to hear about Jesus and come to know Him as their Lord and Savior!
Karolyn Havener, Director