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Posted 5/15/20

Hey HSA Families,

Whew! What a crazy season we have all been in. We are so blessed to have access to God's peace in the middle of the storms of life!

We are so sorry that we were not able to meet again and that so many of our events were cancelled. We are still hoping to have graduation at the end of June as social distancing is possible with this event, but we will see what happens! I appreciate the mammoth effort put out by so many of our teachers and administrators to hold us together, but I know it was still a disappointing end for us all. Thank you all for your support!

So how do we move forward? There are so many unknowns, but we are working on figuring it out!

• We are tentatively planning 2020-2021 classes as they would normally occur in the buildings on Tuesdays.
   
• We are thinking about how we can share fewer germs by doing things like limiting class sizes, having students bring their own basic supplies, cleaning more often, etc. Our program, however, is all about our students interacting, and we have a lot of hand's on activities, so it is a given that germs will be shared. Please continue working on helping your kids know the difference they can make (not sharing food, washing hands more often, etc.). Here are a couple video links that might help: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5-dI74zxPg&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3Qt76-b2DJgxulmVhSUMNTvAKXM-mvYStzdbD6pwJxM1deaEfNv91foMkhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbQ9Kl9CqUU
   
• We are planning a contingency plan should the government shut us down again with altered pricing, so you will not have to pay for services you do not receive. The current tentative plan is to give the primary kids minimal online connection with a drastic cut in cost, but to give the secondary students their regular full online day (on the same schedule) with a minor cut in cost. This could change! We will see what the next few weeks tell us in terms of what we might actually expect to happen. You will also know the plan before you commit to us even though we can not know exactly which way things will go.

• We have yet to see how this year ended up financially and are still in the process of issuing final pay and scholarships. Note that:

• I am eternally appreciative of the grace that I have seen extended from the HSA families in this time of crisis. The staff sacrifice throughout the year to create an awesome program for us all, and you have honored them by continuing to support them as they tried to figure out how to carry on. You are all AWESOME!
• All credits that we said we would give have been given (except barters who will see a reduction in their bill this week).
• I have had some questions about a gym credit. Because we give a discount to full day students, most of students basically get gym for almost free anyway. If you have a secondary partial day student who has participated in gym and feel frustrated that you paid for this quarter, please let Nathan know, and he will give you a discount.
• If you need COVID scholarship as your finances have been wiped out by the pandemic, please fill out the form right away. It is on the website on the Costs page which is linked to the Home Page. We need to finalize all scholarships asap, so we can see where our bottom line is.
• We are hoping to have enough surplus after the smoke clears to generate some kind of credit for current families, but I do not expect it to be large as it is looking as if we are digging into our reserves a bit. One thought (not definite) is to make the registration fee free for returning families next year.
• Last summer, our operating costs went up after registration, so we were not sure if we would be able to make the budget (though we had a cushion to fall back on). Before the pandemic, I had communicated that we would have a slight increase in costs next year due to rising operating costs for us. Considering the current economic situation, we will do our best to keep costs as close to the past year as possible.

• Timing of Registration will partially depend on what unfolds in the next month, but our current tentative plan is:

• • Have the website updated with class information, contingency plans, and secondary schedules by mid-June.
  • Have costs updated and registration open for returning families in late June (with the ability to make changes until the beginning of August).
  • Have registration open for new families a week or two later.

• We have a few openings for staff. Let us know if you are interested. So far, we need:
  • Secondary Yearbook Club teacher
  • High School Physics teacher
  • Primary assistants
  • Possible need for another K/1 teacher
  • Club leaders (and ideas) for primary building. (We will not have cooking this year because of Covid-19).

Thanks for your patience as we work through all of these issues. I used “tentative” a lot in this email as we are dealing with a slew of unknown factors, but I wanted you to know that we are working towards answers and appreciate your prayers. Stay tuned to your emails for updates!

God Bless,

Lorane Dreyer and administrative staff