One of the complaints that we used to get when we were renting the Al Tahoe school was that we never closed.  An odd complaint we used to think, as the ethos of ‘school is out, Club is open’ is what we are all about.  However, now we are in our own building, and working hard to maintain a clean, safe and well maintained environment, we understand the complaint.
As we all know from our own homes, Tahoe is hard to keep clean.  In the summer we have dust and dirt, in the winter we have snow and grit, and pollen can hit at any time!  Add to that over 200 kids and adults through the building every day, and the wear and tear is immediate.
The Club closed for a week at the end of the summer for mandatory staff training and deep cleaning. However, it has become clear that to maintain an environment that our kids deserve, we are also going to have to close during the school year for another deep clean and vital maintenance.
But when to close?
One of the reasons we never closed before was because we know that we are providing a vital service to working families.  Plus, Club is a fun and safe place for kids to be and we want to be here for them.
So in order to make an educated decision, we analysed our attendance records over the past five years and we found that attendance was consistently low in the period between Christmas and New Year.  Attendance during that period was much lower than Thanksgiving, after the New Year and the other school breaks.
A few others factors affecting our decision are:
1. We are obliged to provide our staff with time off for the National Holidays
2. The grant that helps cover Club costs and provides free services for low income families requires that we are OPEN on ALL schools day. Therefore, vacation days are our only option. It is part way through the year, enabling us to not have to close again until June.
So we will be closing Club from the 26th to the 30th December.  On the flip side, we will be open for a full week from the 2nd to the 6th January.  Not only will this provide 3 working days for cleaning and maintenance, but as many parents will be returning to work on the 2nd, we will be providing a full week of full days before school restarts.
We realise that this will impact our families in the hospitality and recreation field who are very busy over the holidays, but we hope that with family visiting for the holidays or planned time off, the impact will be reduced.
Thank you for understanding the need for this change, and the staff look forward to providing a fantastic week of fun at the beginning of January and starting off 2023 with a clean and refreshed building.