*** This story was updated at 8 p.m. on Friday, April 24 ***
The following message is from Albany School of Humanities Principal Marie Culihan:
We received notification from the JCC late Friday afternoon that our after-school program for prekindergarten students will continue Monday without interruption. The JCC apologizes for the confusion that its communication on Thursday caused.
We also are grateful to our partners in the State Legislature -- Sen. Pat Fahy and Assemblymembers Gabriella Romero and John McDonald -- for their advocacy with the New York State Office of Children and Family Services on Friday to help resolve this matter without disruption for our families. We are fortunate to have such strong public servants advocating on behalf of our community.
The following is Principal Culihan's original message from 3 p.m. on Friday:
We wanted to reach out to update you regarding the concerns surrounding our JCC after-school programming for prekindergarten students.
As many of you know, the JCC communicated directly with our pre-K families on Thursday to share that they would be ending their after-school pre-K programming at ASH effective after today. We understand that this news, especially with such short notice, has caused stress and disruption for the families impacted.
Please know that ASH and the City School District of Albany were informed of this matter after the JCC message had already been sent to our pre-K families. I became aware of the situation only after hearing from parents Thursday evening. We are deeply disappointed by how this information was communicated and sincerely apologize for the difficulty this has created for our families.
We are actively working to explore all available options. We are in communication with the JCC as well as other potential partners to determine what support may be available for our pre-K families moving forward. While we do not yet have a confirmed solution, please know that we are committed to doing everything we can to identify possible next steps as quickly as possible.
We recognize how challenging and frustrating this situation is, and we truly appreciate your patience and understanding as we work through next steps. We will share updates with families as soon as more information becomes available.
Thank you for your patience and understanding,