COVID PROCEDURES AND FAQ'S

Below you will find all safety guidelines for Forte Studios.  Below the safety guidelines you will see a list of Frequently asked questions.  We are certain that there will be addition information as well as questions as we move forward.  Student and family safety is our primary concern.  Please read the information below carefully before classes begin this September.

Safety Guidelines for a Safe Return Amidst Covid-19
The safety and health of our students, staff and families is of utmost importance to us. 
We feel good about our plan and hope that you will too.
Here are the things we are doing to keep everyone safe for in-person instruction.

(There have been updates to this document as of August 13, 2020.)

GENERAL

• All students and staff must wear a mask. (We are working on a vocal booth so that private voice students may remove their mask once they are in the vocal booth alone.) 
• Anyone wanting 100% virtual will have that option. 
• Depending on the size of the class, we will plan a mix of in-person & virtual. Some classes may be small enough to allow for in-person instruction each week. Some may require alternating each week between in-person and virtual, while others may allow for in-person most of the time and virtual every couple of weeks or even just once in awhile. Everything will depend on student enrollment and in which studio the class will be held. 
• The floors of all studios have been taped to mark squares that are a minimum of 6.5 X 6.5 feet. Using these squares will help students and teachers make sure that distance is maintained at all times.  The number of students allowed in a room will depend on the activity. (Some classes do not require students to move around a lot, while others do.) The CDC guidelines currently allow no more than 15 in a class for students 12 and under and no more than 25 in a room for students age 13 and up. Our numbers will not even come close to these!

Studio #1 (Orange) will allow 8-10 students depending on the activity. 
Studio #2 (Blue) will allow 8-11 students depending on the activity.
Studio #3 (Green) will allow 6-9 students depending on the activity. 

(SEE PICTURES BELOW FOR FLOORING, CLEANING AND SAFETY PRECAUTION MEASURES)

• Ventilation with shared air ducts in buildings has been a concern. Forte studios has 3 HVAC units! Studio 1 (orange) and Studio 2 (blue) are each on their own system. The third unit takes care of Studio 3 (green) plus the other common areas that will be either closed or have a very limited number of people. 
• All instructors will have additional training to make sure that everyone understands and knows how to implement the safety guidelines. 
• Only students and staff will be allowed in the building. For very young new students, we hope to plan a day and time prior to the first class when student and parent can come in together and become familiar with the space. 
• Cleaning between classes will include floors, door handles, Plexiglas barriers, the vocal booth, and any other things that have been touched during class.
• Dance students should arrive already dressed for class to avoid the need to use restrooms to change. 

                                                       
ENTERING & EXITING

• MASKS WILL BE REQUIRED FOR EVERYONE. Anyone who is unable to wear a mask, will be able to participate in the 100% virtual class options. Please see “Class Instruction” for more details. 
• Students coming to Studio 1 (Orange) & Private/Semi-Private voice students will enter & exit through the front door as usual.

Students coming to Studio 2 (Blue) will enter & exit through the double doors in the back of the building. 
Students coming to Studio 3 (Green) will enter & exit through the single door in the back of the building. 

• Students are not to enter the building until a Staff member comes outside to get them. We want to allow time between classes for students finishing up with class to exit, and for staff to clean between classes. Students should wait in their cars. If students walk or ride a bike, they must maintain a minimum of 6 feet distance with other students waiting outside. 
• Temperatures will be taken by a staff member at the door. Staff members will also have temperatures taken upon entering the building. This will be done with touchless thermometers and none of the information will be stored or recorded. Students with a fever of 100 degrees or higher will need to go home and may join the class virtually. 
• Hand sanitizer will be given to students upon entering & exiting the building.
• Students will have their own space for shoes, water bottles & dance bags that will be distanced from other students and their belongings. 
• Students with multiple classes will exit through which ever door is being used for the studio where they have their last class. 

LOBBY , BATHROOM & WATER FOUNTAIN

• Only students with multiple classes will be allowed to use the lobby while waiting between classes. Otherwise, the lobby will be closed. Chairs will be spaced apart and the lobby will be monitored by a staff member or volunteer. Chairs will be wiped down regularly after each use. 
• The lobby and restroom areas will only be available to students. No other family members will be allowed in the building. 
• Students will be expected to use the restroom before leaving home. No one will be denied use of the facilities, but our hope is to cut down on the number of students using the restrooms. 

             Restrooms will be cleaned often throughout the evening.

CLASS INSTRUCTION (DANCE, VOICE, ACTING)

• Mask Wearing concerns: Most dance activities are not aerobic in nature. They are very anaerobic, meaning short bursts of intense energy is exerted rather than prolonged periods of intense exertion. In the beginning of the season, each dance class will begin with breathing exercises, talking about any concerns with masks, and reviewing proper ways to take them off and put them on. After further research, many studios have been successfully running for months with mask wearing students. There may be socially distanced mask & water breaks if needed. In these cases, they will be short and students will be as far from each other as possible which will be greater than the recommended 6 feet.  Students will also always have the option to step away and take a mask break if needed. Even with the masks, social distancing guidelines will continue to be maintained. 
• Students will need to bring their own water bottle with their name on it. Fill them at home please. 
• Studio floors will have taped boxes so that there are visual markers to make it easier to maintain a minimum of 6 feet social distancing at all times. All of our taped boxes are larger than 6 feet. 
• In addition to wearing masks, Plexiglas barriers will be used in the semi-private vocal rooms between instructors and students. Students will also have Plexiglas barriers between each other for semi-private voice classes. 
• Group Voice classes will be spaced out with all students wearing masks and facing the same direction while singing. 
• No sharing of props. If props such as scarves, bean bags, or wands are needed for a dance class, each student will be given their own baggie with their props inside. After use, the props will go back in the bags and be sent away for cleaning. 
• Ballet barres are an important tool for being able to learn and execute proper ballet technique. Ballet barres are not typically used for Boogie Babies or Combo 1 classes. That will stay the same. For other classes, only 2 people per barre will be allowed. The barres are 8-10 feet long and students will easily be able to maintain more than 6 feet distance. Barres will be thoroughly sanitized between each class. Barres will not be used at all if we can work out another alternative.
• Each studio will have its own cleaning supply station.
• Each studio will have a large TV monitor for viewing virtual students. We also hope to have an assistant for each class to help with technical aspects of running class in person & virtually at the same time. 

PARENT COMMUNICATION & MONITORING 
We love seeing parents and other family members in our building. We want you to be able to be there to get to know us, watch from the observation windows, and just be part of our performing arts atmosphere. All of this is temporary! For now though, we want you to still feel confident that you can easily communicate with us and that you can keep tabs on your child’s progress in class. Communication is a huge priority for us & we do not want this situation that we are in to make parents feel left out or unimportant. We couldn’t do any of this without you!!! 

• Email remains the quickest and easiest way for us to communicate with families. 
• We will still have set office hours when you can call in and speak to Miss Ashley or another staff member. If no one answers, we may be monitoring the hall or working on additional cleaning. Please leave a message and your call will be returned as soon as possible. 

Office hours will be 4:00-8:00pm Monday-Thursday beginning Sept. 2nd. 

• Offering a virtual option for all classes will allow parents to continue being able to monitor classes and see how their child is doing. During the weeks when your child is taking the class virtually, you are more than welcome to sit in with them. You will be able to hear all of the class directions and you will be right there with your child to see his or her progress. 
• Parents who would like to view in-person classes to make sure their child is doing OK will have the option to join the class virtually. 

This is a lot to take in! We have put so much thought and research based care into this plan. We feel fortunate to have the set up that we have with multiple entrances, multiple HVAC units, and large studio spaces for distancing. Thank you for your continued support. Please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any concerns you may have. We will always choose to follow the advice of the medical professionals and put our students and staff safety at the top of our priority list. 

All floors have been taped off to ensure social distancing for our dancers.

Large screens have been implemented into our sound system for our virtual students.

All studios are now equipped with proper cleaning solutions that dry quickly.  Studios will be properly cleaned before and after each class.

---

All private voice students will be taking the majority of their class inside our vocal booth.  This will ensure the safety of our students and staff.  The booth will be properly cleaned before and after each student arrives.

For our semi-private vocal students, plexiglass has been installed to act as a barrier between students and staff.  All vocal students are required to wear a mask unless in the vocal booth.

---

Above are additional photos of the green and blue studios which are properly taped for social distancing as well as installing large screens for our virtual students.

---

                 Frequently Asked Questions for the upcoming season during Covid-19
​
This may not answer all of your questions, but we hope you find it helpful.

Q: Will there be shows? 
A: Yes. We are unsure of details, which will be guided by whatever restrictions we are dealing with. Some shows may be streamed with no live audience. Other shows may be outside or in an auditorium with limited seating. We just can’t be certain at this time. 

Q: Can students take classes 100% virtually? 
A: Yes. Everyone will have this option. We are not sure how or if virtual students will be able to participate in shows. This is something we have never had to deal with before. We want to make this a great experience for everyone and will be working to find ways to include all students in some way.

Q: I am uncomfortable sending my child into the building and not being allowed in myself. What is being done to ease fears and anxiety amongst parents and students with this concern? 
A: Please know that we can’t wait for the time to come when we can let everyone in again to view classes from the windows and visit us in person. For now, parents will be able to log into classes through zoom to observe. Rest assured that if your child is having a tough time and really needs you, we will call you and do what is needed to help you and your child to have a great experience. 

Q: What if someone at the studio tests positive for Covid-19? 
A: If someone tests positive, we will immediately go to all virtual classes for the remainder of the week. This will allow a minimum of 3 days for us to do a deep cleaning of the whole building. We will notify everyone and also let you know which studio or studios the person was in. Even though we will be using all 3 entrances to the building, which means that if a sick student was only in Studio #1 and your student was only in Studio #2, there shouldn’t have been any contact between them, we feel that having a standard policy for the whole building will be safest for everyone. 

Q: Why does my 3 or 4 year old need to wear a mask when the state mandate only requires children ages 5 and up to wear them? 
A: We want everyone to feel safe coming to classes. Wearing a mask is proven to reduce the risk of spread by 80%. While it may be unlikely for young children to spread the virus, we do not feel comfortable taking any chances. Some states require them for ages 2 and up. We would rather be overly cautious than take any unnecessary risks. We are also aware of several studios that have been open for months with the 3-4 year olds wearing masks. They have all had positive things to say about it…other than the obvious of us just not liking them and wanting this to be over…..

Q: How will part in person & part virtual work?
A: We hope to have as many in-person students as safely possible with exception of our 100% virtual students. Assuming all students in a class of 12 (that is our max number for most classes) want in-person, then everyone will need to take turns with in-person and virtual. If the class is in a room only allowing for 6 students, then the students would alternate each week. If the class allows for 8 students, then only 4 would need to be virtual at a time. In that case students would come in-person for 2 weeks and then 1 week virtual. There will be on-going communications to keep everyone updated on virtual and in-person status. 
​