Welcome to the 2021-2022 Dance and Music Season at Angela Floyd Schools

We know that you might have a lot of questions about what the upcoming season will look like at the studio, and we are here with answers and exciting plans!

Dear AFS Parents,

Thank you for a great kick-off to our 25th Anniversary season at Angela Floyd Schools.  We are now a full month into our season, and it has been amazing to see kids and families back in the building.

As the leader of our studio community, I have the great joy of seeing the excitement of the kids and teachers returning to class. I also have the great responsibility of navigating a continuously changing situation as it relates to Covid-19.

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, AFS has provided clear communication and real-time decision-making. This has allowed us to offer continuous programming with only a small incidence of Covid-19 while providing consistent access to the benefits of dance and music such as physical fitness, social-emotional health, and mental wellness. That’s the joy part!

Now for the responsibility part. At AFS, we make all our Covid-related decisions based on a variety of inputs, including local and national sources, as well as industry and studio data. I search the data and track the trends. I also check our county numbers, speak with other community leaders, and pray for wisdom. I’m pleased to say that AFS is still doing extremely well in terms of cases. That’s why we began our fall season by continuing our summer policy of mask recommendation, not a requirement. Our community, however, is not doing as well. The number of children with active cases in Knox Co. as of Monday was 816 students.  However, they still had about an 81.7% attendance rate.

In my Welcome Letter from a month ago, I shared our policies to date.

(August 2021) Our current policies and procedures include asking anyone who is feeling unwell to stay home, asking families to report any known exposures or positive cases to our office, notifying families of any exposure risk from the studio, requiring sanitizing on the way in and out of the studio, encouraging 3 ft. of physical distancing in classes, and managing enrollment flows.  Masks are welcome and encouraged if it increases your comfort in taking class. 

We are aware that your local school district may have different policies, which are appropriate to their facility ages, student body sizes, and length of school day.  Our policies are appropriate to our facility, which is spacious with the most modern air handling systems available for covid, our class size average is 15, and over half of our student population is only in the building for 60 minutes each week.   

We will continue monitoring the situation and make you aware of any changes to our current policies and procedures.  Potential escalation of policies may include closing the lobby to reduce traffic, further limiting class sizes, mask recommendations and/or requirements, and greater physical distancing requirements in classes.

I shared that we will escalate our policies if cases continue to rise as seen above. As such, beginning today, (9/2/2021) the following mitigation measures are being implemented:

• Lobbies will have limited seating and we request that you send your student in alone if possible. We understand that new students may need a few more weeks of mom coming in the lobby and especially if your little one is not completely potty trained.
• Additional seating will be provided outside as soon as possible.
• Also, if you have a question for the office staff we ask that you wait to enter the lobby until the class has begun for that time slot.
• If your child is coming from school or another activity and needs your help changing for a dance class, YES you can still come into the dressing room to help with this transition.
• As always, you may get your questions answered at any time during office hours 8:30am-9:00pm by texting 675-9894.
• We encourage families to have their children wear a mask/face covering to the studio where physical distancing is not possible.

We will continue monitoring the situation week by week and will make you aware of any changes. If community cases continue to rise, potential escalation of policies may include closing the lobby to reduce traffic, further limiting class sizes, greater physical distancing requirements in classes, and/or masking requirements for all ages.

AFS has made a commitment to the health and safety of our students, families, and staff by following the Safer Studio Guidelines and implementing additional procedures to keep everyone safe during these difficult times.  We believe that in-person learning is always best but have continued to offer virtual classes to everyone and will be adding additional new content to our Virtual Studio for everyone’s enjoyment at home as additional complimentary classes and workshops.  The Safer Studio Guidelines we follow is a commitment to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.  We will continue to do our part at AFS while balancing and being respectful of everyone’s beliefs.

We value our AFS families and their support of the performing arts, we will continue to honor the right of parents to make decisions for their children.  However, considering the number of cases in the greater Knoxville area, we encourage families to have their children wear a mask/face covering to the studio where physical distancing is not possible.  None of us want to go back to masks long-term nor do we want to go back to virtual learning, but as transmission is currently high in our area this is one small action, we can take to help limit the spread at AFS and keep our studios open.

Thank you for your continued support,

Angela Floyd, Founder/Director

AFS reopened for in-person classes the week of June 1, 2020 with many precautions in place.  We continue to have systems in place and are certified by the Safer Studio Guidelines:

• •  
• HVAC Hepa filters have been installed at each AFS location to help filter air and is part of our plan to protect our students and families.
• The lobbies are currently open to limited seating; parents can still drop students off or wait in their cars or sit on our outdoor patio.
• AFS will adhere to strict sanitation standards
• AFS requires all staff and students to stay home when they are ill. In order to reduce community spread of Coronavirus, we follow recommendations from our mayor, governor and best practices from our industry associations, More Than Just Great Dancing!® and Youth Protection Advocates in Dance.
• We are following the Safer Studio Guidelines.

We are committed to providing the safest possible environment for our students and offering multiple ways to take class so that each family can decide what is best for them. All of our in-class lessons will also be provided with an amazing experience via Zoom if you feel more comfortable with your student taking virtually from home. You will find the Zoom link in the Parent Portal for each class in which your student is enrolled. We are a tech-enabled school.  AFS has state of the art technology in place, your student can move seamlessly between virtual and in-person classes whenever is best for you. You can even change your mind week to week!  Also, parents can watch all classes via zoom or from our lobby monitors. Please note that tuition and registration fees are not refundable for any reason. Refunds are only issued when AFS cancels a class due to low enrollment.  Should you need to withdraw, a credit for any classes not yet taken will be applied to any AFS tuition or fees due within one year.  Additionally, AFS reserves the right to reschedule or combine classes as well as to provide a substitute or replacement teacher as AFS may deem necessary. AFS reserves the right to deliver class content via an online system in the event that classes are not able to be conducted live for any reason including, but not limited to: weather, teacher absence, or governmental advisory. No refunds will be given if a similar online class is provided in place of an in-studio class. Our instructors and administrative staff actually work harder and longer when classes are provided virtually, and we thank you for understanding our commitment to providing them with fair and adequate compensation for their hard work!

We are currently taking new enrollment for both our dance and music programs for summer and the 25th Anniversary Season 2021-2022.  You can find detailed schedules, information, and register right from  our website.  To Learn More, call or text 865-675-9894.  We are here to help you move forward with your performing arts education in a safe and fun enviroment.  Contact us today to find out what option fits your families needs and see why since 1997 over 8300 families have chosen Angela Floyd School for their Dance and Music  education.