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Dear Telluride Academy Families,

 

First and foremost, we want to extend to our entire community, a message of empathy and support. We know that families are currently making challenging adjustments to their daily lives and that summer plans are probably low on your list of priorities. As the realities of the COVID-19 pandemic materialize, we are working diligently to stay updated and informed on matters that may impact our summer programming. Our goal is to ensure that our student experiences are on track to continue as external factors permit and  that we are positioned to update our families in a manner that allows for as much advance planning as possible.

 

Because the future is unknown at this time, and because information regarding prognosis, timelines and updates seems to change every day, we are currently creating proactive contingency plans and preparing for a variety of scenarios that could materialize this summer. At this time, we are not cancelling any of our scheduled summer programs but will continue to communicate and follow the guidance of our regional health department, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and our Colorado childcare licensing agency. For support in addressing the unique elements of facilitating smaller outdoor-based programs such as ours, we will be following and adopting the recommendations of the American Camp Association’s (ACA) Coronavirus and Communicable Disease action plan. We will continue to abide and implement our industry leading standards when it comes to hygiene and health as well as execute any additional protocols as required by the realities of dealing with this new virus.

 

We have also amended our cancellation policy to create space and assurance within the ever-changing landscape of making summer plans. Our traditional non-refundable 25% deposit can now be applied to any program in 2020 or 2021. Full payments will not be required until 30 days prior to a program start date vs. our traditional date of May 15th. We hope that this new policy gives families the peace of mind to join us in a journey of adjusting summer schedules as the external environment allows.

 

Finally, we want to voice our appreciation and gratitude for each and every one of our Academy parents, students, staff and board members. Amidst such uncertain times we have found strength and support throughout our extended Telluride Academy community and have developed a renewed sense of purpose in our mission. While the future is unknown at this moment, there is comfort in knowing that there will be a time to return to the elements of life that unite us, that inspire us and that bring us back together. Through the nature of our unique outdoor programs, we work so hard to teach our students the value of overcoming challenges and applying a mentality of “Adapt, Improvise and Overcome”. It will be this same attitude and mindset that we as an organization apply towards this current challenge we collectively face. We believe that Telluride Academy programs will be as important as ever when we emerge from this challenging period and we look forward to welcoming you all in the future! 

 

In Gratitude, 

 

 

Luke Brown
Executive Director