September 12, 2020 | First session 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 PM Second session 1:00- 4:00 p.m.
Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach Re-Opening Plan Donna Guzzo, President & Executive Director May 18, 2020
Phased Timeline
The Cultural Center will gradually open this summer starting on July 6. An incremental approach allows us to prioritize health and safety while taking progressive steps to restore regular operations. It also provides the flexibility for regular monitoring and revision of our plan. The best way to prevent illness is to protect against exposure to the virus. The Cultural Center will promote measures for the health and well-being of the staff, volunteers, instructors, and visitors.
Coordination with Federal, State, and Local Authorities
The Cultural Center will continue to communicate with state and local authorities in St. Johns County regarding current mitigation levels in our community and to coordinate our plans for reopening. In addition, we will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines regarding Covid-19 and the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). This guidance includes, among other sources, the CDC’s Interim Guidance for Businesses and Employers to Plan and Respond to Coronavirus Disease and OSHA/HHS’s Guidance for Preparing Workplaces for COVID-19.
Meeting Safety Conditions
Even when legally permitted to reopen, we will do so when we consider it safe, based on our membership and visitor population. Many of our visitors are considered "elderly" and therefore at greater risk. We are focused on the following issues, based on federal guidelines.
- Downward trend in local COVID-19 cases: Federal guidelines identify criteria for states to satisfy before they proceed to their phased reopening plans, such as reporting a declining trajectory of coronavirus cases for 14 days straight. We will use data from the CDC and from the Department of Health (https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/) to guide our decision making about when to reopen.
- Sufficient staff resources: The Cultural Center may need time to recruit, hire, orient, and properly train or retrain staff at all levels in operating, safety, and enhanced cleaning procedures. Our contract cleaning service will have to use approved cleaning and sanitizing products.
- Availability of equipment and supplies: Before reopening, we need to ensure that we have adequate supplies to support healthy hygiene behaviors for staff and visitors, to provide appropriate personal protective equipment (e.g., masks, disposable gloves,) hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol, and to properly clean and disinfect our facility—and that essential supplies can be restocked as needed.
Enhanced Safety Procedures
We will implement new safety procedures to ensure that all staff, instructors, students, and visitors are as safe as possible while on site. These procedures follow:
- Promote frequent hand washing by all staff, instructors, students, and visitors. If soap and water are not readily available, people will use hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Employees will be asked to take regular breaks to wash their hands. We will place hand sanitizer stations throughout the Cultural Center for visitor use.
- Ensure physical distancing: We are taking measures to ensure physical distancing for staff and visitors. If some staff is able to work from home, we are considering extending telework policies. We are considering how staff schedules can be staggered, workplaces reconfigured, and visitor capacity
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and access restricted to decrease contact. We will limit the number of visitors in the building at one time. Use signage or barriers to enforce physical distancing guidelines, including the galleries, studio, ceramic room, conference room, hallways, and offices. Timed tickets will be considered for Home Tour and Holiday Shoppes events to limit the number of visitors in circulation at one time. Some group visits, guided tours, public programs, and special private events may be cancelled or restricted until it is safe to offer them.
- Provide protective equipment: Our employees should have access to appropriate protective equipment, based on our risk assessment and workers’ specific job duties.
- Barriers and panels can help maintain distance between staff and visitors. Two of these Plexiglas panels will be installed at the front office desks.
- Wearing cloth face covers: They are particularly essential in times when physical distancing is not possible. We are requiring staff and visitors to wear face covers, except for children younger than two years old or those with a chronic disease that makes breathing difficult.
- Covering coughs and sneezes: We will provide tissues for employees, instructive signage, and touch- free trash cans for tissue disposal.
- Ensure that sick people stay at home or leave the premises immediately: We have a sick leave and time off policy to cover our staff. We are reviewing our telework policies for use by staff who are unwell. If anyone exhibits Covid-19-like symptoms (e.g., fever, cough, shortness of breath), he or she will be immediately sent home and asked to seek medical attention. Employees who awake with these symptoms should notify their supervisor and stay home.
- Implement a visitor sign-in procedure. We will ask everyone to provide their name, cell phone, and email address in the event that the state implements a contract tracing protocol. All visitors will be stopped to have their temperature taken with a no touch thermometer, and will be asked questions related to fever, cough or shortness of breath.
- Establish clear cleaning/disinfecting and ventilation protocols. We will ensure that the cleaning vendor uses sanitation products that are in compliance with CDC guidelines for Covid-19 (https://www.epa.gov/pesticide-registration/list-n-disinfectants-use-against-sars-cov-2).
- Increase the frequency of cleaning of high-touch areas. Several times a day, staff will clean surfaces such as payment stations, touch screens, bathrooms doors and sink handles, water fountains, keyboards, phones, central copier, and light switches. Presently, the Cultural Center is professionally cleaned twice per week. At the end of each class students will need to clean their work area with cleaning supplies provided and kept at the studios, teachers are responsible for this happening. A communication will go out to all teachers prior to reopening.
- Ensure that ventilation systems are operating properly and increase the circulation of outdoor air into the Cultural Center as much as possible. In addition, we will utilize high quality air filters in our HVAC systems.
- Restrict direct contact with visitors: As part of our Cultural Center’s phased approach, we will limit person-to-person contact, monitor the number of visitors in the building at one time, and restrict or prohibit access to certain areas of the Cultural Center. For example, we will implement online ticket sales and limit cash and paper receipt transactions. Touchless payment options are recommended.
- Provide digital visitor guides and materials instead of physical copies at the Cultural Center. We will ask visitors to take paper materials with them when they leave or to dispose of them in waste receptacles.
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• Control traffic flow: We will establish one-way flow through the Cultural Center and within the galleries to facilitate distancing. The flow will be marked accordingly.
Update Workplace Policies
Policies for employee leave, telework, and compensation have been reviewed and updated to protect our staff, provide flexibility, and ensure that sick employees are able to stay home. We need to consider the emotional toll on our staff and take steps to promote their wellness.
We will continue to actively monitor evolving guidelines from the CDC, OSHA, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and others as they pertain to pandemic situations. We have engaged our Center’s Human Resources Independent Contractor in the review of our policies.
We will continue to update employees as we have more information from the CDC and other sources regarding how to stay healthy and cope with this challenging situation.
Support the Staff
The COVID-19 pandemic will affect the mental health and well-being of employees well beyond the present situation. The National Safety Council (https://www.nsc.org/work-safety/safety- topics/coronavirus) regularly updates a resource page with information about the employer role in mental health, working with benefit providers, stress reduction, substance misuse, and more.
When implementing health checks of employees and visitors, we will conduct them safely and respectfully, and in accordance with any applicable privacy laws and regulations. Confidentiality will be respected. We will use examples of screening methods in the CDC’s General Business FAQs as a guide to communicate the screening process to employees. Employees will be informed about the screening process in advance of its starting so they will know exactly what to expect and what to do. Training #1 took place on May 12. Training #2 will take place one week prior to re-opening.
Donna Guzzo and Alejandra Hernandez-Ordonez will be responsible for responding to Covid-19 concerns. Staff are required to self-report any symptoms and notify their supervisors of Covid-19 exposure.
We have provided guidance and training to protect staff and promote safe interactions with visitors. The training, (#1) using National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) resources, has been conducted virtually before the staff returns to the Cultural Center. We will continue to communicate proactively with both staff and the public about our plans and the protocols in place for their health and safety. We will be adding a list of community resources and tip sheets on our website, on signage in the Center and even in our programming.
Connect with the Broader Community
The Cultural Center will continue to send out eNews with our Covid-19 reopening plans and post updates on our website and in social media. We sent out a survey on May 11 to all campers, parents, students, and teachers about in-person classes, workshops, and camps starting Summer 2020. We want to assess their comfort level and concerns regarding the reopening. A second survey will be mailed out in August for Fall classes.
We also will continue to communicate and coordinate with other museums in our community for consistency.
Support Free COVID-19 Resources for The Cultural Center
The current crisis is taking a distressing financial toll on cultural organizations, including the Cultural Center. Therefore, we ask that you consider supporting our programming and making extensive Covid- 19 resources freely available to us by making a donation, www.ccpvb.org
The Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach is the place in our community to create, understand, and experience the arts. We accomplish this through exhibitions of local, regional and national artists in a variety of media; through exciting events for the community; and through quality arts classes, lectures and workshops.
Online Market
The Cultural Center will be selling items online from the Market. Check back for more items coming soon!
Face Masks!
These face masks have been made by Sharon Warner and the Quilting Group. Thank you!
Cultural Center Aprons
Gift Cards
Handmade Glasses Holders
