COVID-19 Update
Dear KCS Families,
We can’t believe it’s been almost 2 months since we last saw you! As the COVID-situation continues to evolve, we want to ensure you that our commitment to the health and safety of your kids as well that of our parents and aquatic educators will not waiver and will always be our raison d’être. It is crucial for KCS to stay in touch with all of you and keep you in the loop during these difficult and challenging times. It is now evident to us all that it will take some time for life to return to normal. We want to let you know about a few of the measures we are taking right now to prepare for a safe and responsible return to swimming lessons, but only when the timing is right, public health officials deem it to be safe and we receive the green light from the Province of Ontario.
Below are some of the precautionary measures that we will be implementing upon our re-opening:
- COVID-19 Written Protocol: We have developed and implemented a COVID-19 Operations Protocol which will be used as a special operation guide while under the threat of COVID-19 in Ottawa. Our guidelines were established through expert opinions as well as previous successful adaptations in time of crisis. The philosophy of the protocol is to (a) reduce the amount of people in the entire building at once and ensure that sanitary protocols are followed (b) protect our guests and their kids, and to also protect all our employees and (c) participate in the efforts to prevent further infection in order to keep our community safe.
- Cleanliness and Safety: We have added several sanitizing stations as well as new and enhanced cleaning procedures before during and after each shift. We will also be providing appropriate PPE to all our guests and will perform symptom-checks upon arrival at our Center.
- Social Distancing: We have changed the flow of foot traffic at the center to ensure that our guests can always keep safe distancing.
- Staggered Start Times/Less traffic: We will be adapting our schedule to ensure that we have a better flow of guests through our Center so there is a limited amount of people at any one time. We will ask our guests that their kids arrive with their bathing suit on (to have less traffic in changing room) and accompanied by only one parent/guardian.
- Aquatic Educator Training: We are providing our Aquatic Educators with personal protective equipment and adapting our lesson plans and training to ensure more personal distance during lessons.
Makeup Tokens for March Lessons for those Registered with us
Understanding that we are living in unprecedented times and in order to be fair to all our parents, we are extending the expiry date on all COVID-related makeup tokens from 60 days after re-opening to 6 months from the date our group lessons begin. Though normally swimmers would need to be monthly swimmers in order to use makeup tokens, we will be allowing parents to use their makeup tokens even if their children are not registered as “Active Swimmers” with us.
Exploring the idea of offering Private Lessons
Given that COVID-related restrictions are likely to be removed in a slow and measured way, we are exploring the possibility of offering private lessons in order to re-open at a slower pace, while following all recommended procedures and checks to ensure the health and safety of your kids. To that effect, we would be looking at a maximum of 5 kids in both pools (one kid per lane) at any given time.
Please let us know, by emailing us at [email protected] if you are interested in private lessons for your kids and we will add you to our special mailing list.
Also, please reach out to us if you have any ideas of ways that we could better serve our community during this time.
We will continue to carefully monitor the situation and will let you know about any further decisions. Thank you for your continued support and understanding and we can’t wait to welcome you back to our Center.
Please stay safe and healthy!
The KCS Team
