The Nursery
The St. James’ Nursery is prepared for our youngest parishioners and is available on Sundays for the 8:40 and 11:05 am. Eucharist and for the Church School hour. We open at 8:15 am and close at 12:30 pm. Additionally, the nursery is available for all parish wide church services.
The nursery for infants and crawlers is housed in Room 110. Room 108 is open for walkers and young toddlers. We have two adjoining rooms, Rooms 112 and 114, available for 2 year olds.
Three and four year old children have the option of attending the entire church service with their parents or attending the Three and Four Year Old Nursery, available in Room 107, for the Liturgy of the Word. (The first half of the Church service.) An acolyte leads the children into the church during the announcements. Parents are asked to stand and greet their children.
The St. James’ Nursery offers a peaceful and warm environment with a kind and caring staff eager to provide your child with a wonderful church experience.
Our Nursery Supervisor is Ms. Jean Williams. She is on site to help you and your child transition into the nursery, answer any questions you have and help in any way she can.
St. James’ Church Nursery COVID-19 Protocol and Guidelines
We are approaching the time when our children can return to St. James Church nursery care. Our current plan is to reopen the nursery during the 10:05 Sunday morning worship service on March 14. It is our mission and desire to provide a safe nursery setting.
The following are some changes we are making in light of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. We ask you to adhere to these new policies and procedures as we begin to bring our youngest children back to church.
1. Please make a reservation for the nursery by Thursday of each week by filling out the reservation form online.
2. The nursery will start receiving children at 9:30am. Please plan to drop your children off at the red doors of Gray Hall building. You can pull through the circular drive in your car and someone will be there to retrieve your child/children from the car, or you can walk your children up to the front entrance of Gray Hall and drop them off with a nursery staff member. Only children, nursery workers, and other church personnel will be permitted on the children’s hallway. This procedure may take a bit longer than normal, so please allow yourself enough time to make your way to worship.
3. If your child is ill, they should remain at home. Church staff and children attending the nursery will have their temperature taken prior to entering the children’s area using a “no touch” infrared thermometer. Per CDC recommendations, readings greater than 100.4 degrees are considered fever. We strongly encourage parents and caregivers to screen children for infectious symptoms before coming to church. Children will not be allowed to enter the nursery if they have had a fever within the last 48/hours or have exhibited symptoms of coughing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea if anyone in a child’s household currently has been diagnosed with COVID or is in quarantine for contact tracing for COVID. Your child should also remain at home if anyone in his or her household has received a positive COVID-19 test result or if anyone in his or her household is awaiting results of a COVID-19 test.
4. Parents should wash their own hands or use hand sanitizer and assist in washing the hands of their child before drop-off, prior to coming to pick up, and when they get home.
5. Nursery workers and the Director will have access to Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), such as masks and gloves, to prevent the spread of germs. Subject to applicable executive orders, children are NOT required to wear masks in the nursery; however, if they enter the church at the peace, they will need to be able to keep a mask on while in the church.
**Please note that both the Diocese Guidelines and the CDC Guidelines suggest but do not require that masks be worn by children older than two years of age. If parents want their child over two years of age to wear a mask, we encourage parents to have those conversations with their child and send them to the nursery with a clean mask.
6. Please send clearly labeled bottles, cups and/or containers for children in the infant and toddler rooms. Teachers will serve packaged snacks. Please do not send any other food at this time.
7. Please adhere to social distancing while on the church grounds.
8. At this time, all children will need to be picked up by 11:30am from the entrance to Gray Hall (red doors/circular drive) where they were dropped off. You can pick them up by driving through the circular drive and someone will walk them to your car, or you can walk up to the entrance of Gray Hall to pick them up. The glass door leading into Gray Hall from the Nursery Hallway will be locked.
In order to keep your child as safe as possible, we will be doing the following:
1. All nursery workers and adult volunteers will be wearing a face covering. All nursery workers will have their temperature taken upon arrival.
2. Cleaning and disinfecting will be intensified. a. Soft toys have been removed from the nursery. Children should not bring their own toys from home. b. Toys that cannot be sanitized will not be used. c. Toys that a child puts in their mouth will be removed and sanitized on site. d. Nursery workers and volunteers will, as often as possible, sanitize hands after touching each child. e. All nursery rooms, bathrooms, and nursery hallway will be fogged with a sanitizing fogger on Friday afternoons and after everyone leaves on Sunday each week. 3. Each Nursery room and the nursery hallway has been equipped with its own HEPA air purifier. Classroom windows will be left partially open when possible to create increased ventilation. Children will spend time outside when possible.
4. Nursery workers will sanitize hands before and after children enter/leave the nursery.
5. Nursery workers and volunteers will document all children in a class in the case of a possible outbreak for the purpose of contact tracing.
6. Diapering stations will be sanitized before and after each use. Nursery workers will wear gloves.
7. Nursery workers and volunteers will wear gloves to serve snacks and bottles.
8. Nursery workers and volunteers will not be allowed to work if they have had a fever within the last 48/hours or are exhibiting symptoms of coughing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, fatigue, muscle or body aches, headache, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, congestion or runny nose, nausea, vomiting or diarrhea.