Year End Report 2020
Year End Report 2020
January 2020 - December 2020
A year of unexpected challenges and unexpected blessings.
Following Twenty Years of Garden Gate January - March
During the first quarter of 2020, we basked in the celebration of our 20th anniversary.
In January 2020, in addition to our children’s studio work, we received a grant to continue our programming with Little Bird Music from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and began another session of dance with The Yard. We also applied for and received a grant from The Couch Family Foundation for “The Special Rights of Children Project” aimed specifically at increasing high quality resources for early childhood educators that support children’s learning and the social and emotional growth and well-being of young children. Our parents, at our Annual Meeting in January, planned a spring fundraiser with many families stepping up to donate time and resources to ensure its success. Fundraising goals included contributing to “The Special Rights of Children Project” and well as capital equipment purchases and summer program scholarship support.
We continued our writing of The Garden Gate Approach in order to make discussion of our pedagogy and curriculum accessible to our own staff as well as other early learning educators in the field. Staff participated in an island-wide Trauma Informed Care workshop as part of The Pyramid Model trainings and discussed implications for our practice.
We happily celebrated with our families at our annual Valentine’s Day Breakfast, coming together as a school community for what we didn’t realize would be the last time we’d all be together for a while.
Garden Gate at Home March - June
On March 14, 2020, after consulting with the Tisbury Board of Health, our center’s Health Care Consultant, several island preschool directors, and many others, we made the difficult decision to follow the public school’s lead and close our program in response to the emerging Coronavirus crisis. We planned to remain closed for the next two weeks. Unfortunately, in order to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker extended the closure of the state's public schools and day care centers and Garden Gate remained closed through the end of the school year and summer. Our priority was to close our program for as long as was appropriate for the health of our families, staff and community, and to be able to reopen to provide care and services when it was deemed safe.
Our fundraising priority quickly shifted to provide emergency funding to support our staff and keep the program viable throughout this uncertain moment in time. Fundraising efforts were put directly towards ensuring staff were paid and minimal operating costs were covered throughout school closure. Our fundraiser was moved to an online format and proved successful thanks to the hard work of families who continued to sell chances for our big prize, generously donated by the Boyle family. For much of the spring, Leigh Ann and Dawn worked tirelessly to secure funding to keep the program afloat. While we heard of many child care programs forced to close their doors, across the country and on our island, we worked diligently to ensure the financial stability and viability of our program, to be able to pick back up and to provide the consistent and quality care we always have once we were able to reopen.
In addition to applying for and receiving the PPP and SBA loans provided by the federal government, we were overwhelmed by the generosity of this community in the form of emergency grants and private donations. Dawn and Leigh Ann secured two grants from the Couch Family Foundation, two grants from the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard, emergency grants from MV Youth, as well as continued payment from the Community Development Block Grant (Bailey Boyd) during our closure. We also received several private donations including generous donations from South Mountain Company.
Meanwhile the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care issued, revised and reissued guidance regarding COVID-19 and the reopening of programs. Dawn and Leigh Ann attended Health and Safety Town Halls provided by EEC as well as local meetings with Directors to determine the course of action. Finally on June 1, EEC released their first version of the Minimum Requirements for Health and Safety, a lengthy document outlining requirements for reopening, addressing strategies for screening and monitoring of children and staff, responding to illness, strategies to reduce the risk of transmission, cleaning sanitizing and disinfecting, and considerations for special populations. It was clear that significant changes to our program were necessary and we worked together, in consultation with our Health Care Consultant and other directors, both local and across Massachusetts, to determine our reopening strategy. In addition to securing PPE and sanitizing/disinfecting supplies, exploring options for accommodating new regulations regarding square footage and staff to child ratios, and developing strategies for physical distancing, it was critical that we reopened with programing that, above all else, supported children’s emotional and social wellbeing. This was the challenge we faced as we began the process of reopening.
During this time, from mid-March through the end of the school year in June, we were struggling to maintain our relationships and our connection to our children and families while they remained at home. We relied on email, social media and online surveys to connect with families. We held daily office hours on Zoom as well as weekly Circle Times on Zoom for our children and families. Little Bird Music classes also moved to a Zoom format. In April, Dawn and Leigh Ann packed up Big Room and Little Room activity bags for each child with the goal to remind the children that we were still thinking about them and missing them. We began using a private Facebook group as our primary means of sharing weekly Invitations to Wonder, photos and videos of children and teachers at home and at school, also links to articles for parents. We started each week with an Invitation to Wonder - a spark, an idea, a question - to launch curiosity and wonder. And provided families with ways to extend inquiry at home. Through our Garden Gate at Home Facebook group, parents were able to share at-home investigations and children could listen to teachers reading stories and see the work of their friends. In May, Parent/Teacher conferences were offered through Zoom. In June, children and families were invited to write letters and make drawings that were distributed to their friends and teachers during the week of Garden Gate graduation, June 15-19, 2020, a physically distanced, virtual graduation ceremony to honor the Garden Gate Class of 2020. Teachers put together graduation goodie bags for every child in the Little Room and Big Room and all were invited to attend a virtual graduation ceremony on Zoom during our regular Friday Circle Time. Families of graduates were welcomed to invite extended family members to join our Zoom celebration.
Reimagining our Work July - August
We made the decision to remain closed through the summer as the challenges of covid made it impossible for our Directors to teach full-time and attend to overwhelming administrative demands at the same time. Instead, we devoted the summer to developing our program and our policies to meet all of the EEC reopening guidelines while maintaining a program that enhances, not limits, the children’s learning experiences and social/emotional development and wellbeing.
One of the most challenging obstacles we faced with the new requirements was the increased square footage required in order to maintain physical distancing. With the increased requirement, we would be unable to enroll all of our current families. This challenge prompted us to reach out to Ann Smith at Featherstone Center for the Arts to inquire about the temporary use of one of their studio spaces as an auxiliary Garden Gate classroom and she and the Featherstone Board generously agreed. Much of the summer was spent to get this new space ready for licensing.
With the addition of the third classroom, our part-time teacher, Trina, went to full time. Trina, who achieved her EEC Teacher Certification this summer, and Amanda, who completed Lead Teacher Certification, are co-teaching the toddlers in the Little Room. And Dawn is teaching the Pre-K group (with hopes to add Kindergarten) in the Big Room, with our former teacher, Sandra, joining Dawn part-time. Leigh Ann and Delia are co-teaching the 3’s/4’s in the auxiliary classroom at Featherstone. Our full-time teachers returned to work August 1 in order to plan and prepare for reopening under Covid. Additionally, our teachers took part in several online trainings, including the week-long Play First Summit, featuring speakers from 6 continents sharing insights and ideas on the best way forward for children and the people who care for them. The summit addressed current issues in advocating for and caring for young children during this time of Covid and prompted deep discussions among our staff.
For many many years Garden Gate has taken inspiration from the Reggio approach. On the surface this looks like creative use of the arts and project-based learning. But on a much deeper level it looks like values-based education and strong advocacy for children as fully valued competent members of our community. We leaned hard on the teachings of Malaguzzi as we moved forward into our newly reimagined classrooms. Inspired by the beautiful Featherstone space, all three classrooms have been reimagined as “studios for learning” - open, creative spaces where children can create and imagine. We began referring to our three classrooms as Studio One, Studio Two and Studio Three. Our outdoor classrooms and surrounding outdoor environments have also been reimagined as rich learning spaces, becoming our primary classrooms through much of the day as we seek to attend to everyone’s health during this pandemic.
On July 9, The Vineyard Gazette published an opinion piece written by Leigh Ann, titled Save Early Childhood Education, in which she describes “the child care trilemma” faced by children, teachers and families seeking high quality child care and advocates for systematic support for programs and families.
https://vineyardgazette.com/news/2020/07/09/save-early-childhood-education
In a meeting with our landlords on July 1, 2020 we were informed that they will be selling the property. After negotiation they agreed to extending our lease through the next two school years, terminating in June 2022. This has created an immediacy to securing a long term commitment to a new location/facility for the program. In response, Dawn and Leigh Ann expanded the Garden Gate Board to include several new talented and gifted Board Members who will serve to expand our creative, outside-the-box thinking and problem solving. With the rejuvenation of our new Board, we restated our mission:
The mission of Garden Gate Child Development Center is to fully support the development of each child, to hold up each child in order that they learn to love and value themselves, to stand up for what’s right and fair, and to be a source of good in the world, to ensure their successes as both students and citizens of our community.
This mission is accomplished through our innovative approach to early education and our involvement with the arts as a means of creative communication and problem solving. Students at Garden Gate develop foundational skills that influence and support their future learning and success in school, in the workforce, and as citizens of our world. Our mission extends to strengthen families with parent education, community resources for special education and mental health support, daily communication and contact and a community they can turn to in the face of parenting struggles and challenges.
Nothing without Joy September - December
Classrooms at West Spring Street reopened the first week in September and the Featherstone classroom was licensed and ready to open the following week. Finally we were able to do what is in our hearts to do, teach and learn and grow with the children. Adapting to wearing masks, being outdoors in all weather, daily health attestations, limited face-to-face communication with parents and the challenges of being in two different locations all seemed minor compared to the joy of seeing the children together again.
Our reopening was generously supported by a grant from Martha’s Vineyard Community Services Driving the Future Fund. This grant helped to cover some of the costs incurred in setting up our classrooms for this highly unusual school year and to be able to complete the transformation of our existing classrooms on West Spring Street, our new temporary classroom at Featherstone and our large outdoor classrooms into “studios for learning”, with equipment and materials to support relationships, encourage creative thinking and work, and deepen learning both indoors and out.
We began utilizing Brightwheel, a new software program that allows us to manage attendance, billing, enrollment, and learning plans all digitally. It has streamlined many administrative tasks and even more importantly, provided a platform for communicating with parents and sharing regular updates, including notes, learning observations and newsletters.
Many of our traditional annual Garden Gate events have had to be changed to accommodate for Covid considerations that prohibit group gatherings. Instead of our annual Fall Fun Day, we secured a donation of pumpkins for each family to decorate and then displayed our pumpkins at Stark Park for Halloween as a way to show our community spirit, and add a little spook and sparkle to Main Street, Vineyard Haven. Our annual Open House for Parents was done virtually this year, with each classroom creating a slideshow of children’s work and curriculum on Google Slides. Parent Teacher Conferences were done on Zoom with progress reports and children’s work sample portfolios presented through the Brightwheel app. In December we replaced our annual campfire celebration with individual Lantern Walks, hoping to create a celebration that inspires hope and joy while keeping everyone in our school community safe and healthy. Families took pictures and videos of their family’s walk which was compiled into a community video to bring us together virtually.
https://animoto.com/play/J8c33iP1x1pRgCswMHO9Rw
As our fall got underway, we were fortunate to secure Heather Tilton as our designated Substitute Teacher. Heather is subbing solely for Garden Gate and has worked several times at both West Spring St. and Featherstone. Heather is an experienced Lead Teacher and Dawn and Leigh Ann have both known Heather for many many years. She has worked as a sub at Garden Gate in the past and we are lucky to have her available to us during this time!
Little Room teacher Amanda offered to create a fundraiser this fall, selling her handmade “Amanda Hats” and donating 20% of the proceeds to Garden Gate! We also ran a Giving Tuesday fundraiser on Facebook which exceeded our $1500 goal.
In November the Boston Area Reggio Inspired Network published Garden Gate’s “Silver Lining” story in their Fall Newsletter. In it we expressed the incredible gratitude we feel for making it this far in 2020.
We are grateful for the wonderful community connections that have grown out of the Covid crisis. First, it was the emergency Covid funding offered by many local organizations when our program was first shut down in the spring. Then, it was the way our local early childhood community came together to support each other as we navigated closing and reopening our schools. But one of the greatest silver linings we have enjoyed has been the deepening community connection with our local arts center that has developed in direct response to new covid reopening guidelines ... Our classroom at Featherstone is a temporary solution to what we hope is a temporary challenge, but we know the impact on our program will be long lasting as the relationship with Featherstone continues to grow.
As 2020 comes to a close, there is much to be grateful for, but above all is our gratitude for the families that have sustained us in every way. At Thanksgiving parents presented us with their own words of gratitude.
“In the middle of a pandemic you have created a magical place for our children to learn, explore, get curious, make friends and thrive. It is with immense comfort in these unsettling times to know my child is exactly where he needs to be and I cannot thank you enough for taking the chance to have the rights of children be your priority.”
“You’re serving up more sunshine for our Island’s community than you likely know. And in exponential ways. No small thing, especially now.”
As we look ahead to 2021, it is with the goal of preserving the best of what we are creating and ensuring that Garden Gate endures for our community’s young children and families. In 2021 we must focus our efforts on securing a long-term home for our school and ask for the community’s help in seeing us through.