Re-opening Your School in a Pandemic World

It’s scary. COVID-19 is a present and uncertain virus that makes confidence and calmness hard to find throughout you day. Your region/state/county may be letting you re-open but that doesn’t remove the risk of the virus, of active student decline, and ultimately decreased overall profit. Your concern as a school owner is valid and real.

The best thing you can do right now is provide your students with the stability and certainty. You can’t promise they will be 100% protected, but you can offer a sense of normalcy, an opportunity for fitness and distraction, and a place where they can connect with people in their community.

Here are the 3 C’s of Re-Opening in a Pandemic World…

1. Cleanliness- Have a cleaning procedure setup for your school starting today. Plan to sanitize the area according to established regulations in your region and keep a log of everything you and your staff do. Create checklists for before, during, and after classes. This protects both your students, your staff, and your business should an inspector request proof.
2. Consent – It is very important that everyone knows what they are opting into when they walk through your doors as you re-open. Be sure to draft a waiver form for in-person training with the help of a legal consultant knowledgeable of your regions rules and restrictions. A few things we have found good for the waiver to cover include:  your COVID-19 policies and procedures, awareness and agreement  to the risk of in-person training in the pandemic environment, school sanitation requirements, student/spectator participation requirements (such as masks, shoes, uniform, etc).
3. Clarity – Clarity and good communication are key to the success of a good re-opening. Take time well before you open your doors to over communicate that you are opening and how you will be operating classes in the new environment. Use email, phone calls, text messages, anything to make sure every student/parent hears the message. Be clear and consistent with the messaging and have the entire team trained to on the right words to maintain clarity. Also, consider reaching out to each individual family in addition to mass communication. This will give you an opportunity to help anyone with underlying concerns while also helping with your student retention.

There are so many things that we are still learning in the industry on how to deal with the pandemic. The situation will continue to reshape and evolve so it is a good idea to keep flexible and be ready for any changes at a moment’s notice.

Kovar Systems has kept up-to-date with our community throughout this crisis and continue to learn from our peers and school owners around the world. If you would like to join the community, we would love to invite you and your team to join with a free one-month trial of our program. Click here to join today, we promise you won’t regret it!