All of the members of the Knowledge Learning Corporation family of schools
are stepping up nationwide to help the Hurricane victims. While our main focus
has been on our own employees and the 22 centers in Louisiana, Mississippi,
and Alabama that were impacted, we are beginning to hear about a variety of
Company heroes who are providing services to their local communities, as well.
We have a team of people in the field and in our corporate office in Portland
who are dedicated to ensuring that our damaged centers can be repaired and
reopened safely to serve more children. A Facilities Response Team was established
prior to the Hurricane, which allowed us to respond immediately to the disaster.
The Facilities Response team has been working around the clock from a centralized
facility in Mobile, Alabama. On top of their official duties, the team also
staged a successful rescue in Harvey, Louisiana late Wednesday evening. (I
have attached a copy of an employee communication that was distributed yesterday.)
Our Education and Training team has provided guidance to all of our field
employees on how to help children cope with disaster.
As of September 8, five of the 22 centers most dramatically affected by
the Hurricane remain closed, either because they are inaccessible or they
do not have water at the centers. All but a handful of our affected employees
have called in to report their whereabouts and receive instructions on how
to access the many resources we are making available to them.
The corporate Operations team is providing daily guidance to our field managers
on a number of operations challenges, such as data processing, parent inquiries,
placing bulk food orders, and ordering satellite phones in the affected areas.
In addition, we are working very closely with local authorities and disaster
relief agencies to reopen our centers as quickly as we can once we can ensure
that conditions are safe for our staff and the children and families we serve.
We have contacted state licensing authorities to partner with them on ways
to streamline the employee hiring processes and the child enrollment process
for displaced employees and families.
Many other centers in the Southeast are open and available to enroll displaced
families. We welcome the opportunity to support more families at one of these
available sites. Our early childhood centers in Houston, Texas, have stepped
up to take in as many of the families coming in as we can.
This week, we are working to establish a Hurricane Katrina web page on our
Internet site that will provide information to employees, enrolled families,
potential new families, and others seeking information on disaster relief
efforts.
A new Employee Assistance Program for Knowledge Learning Corporation employees
is now available that will include counseling services and much more for all
of our employees.
The Company, which employs over 41,000 people in 39 states and the District
of Columbia, has set up a Knowledge Learning Corporation Employee Relief Fund.
All donations--from employees, parents, vendors and corporate partners--into
the Fund will be matched by the Company. We have established an account with
Bank of America and are also taking checks and employee payroll deductions
to build the Fund. We are also facilitating the delivery of donations to the
American Red Cross.
