Dear Families,
I hope this letter finds you and your family safe and well and enjoying the warm summer days. It has been a busy time here on campus since school ended. Our Day Camp has entered its final week and I want to thank Eric Danowski and all of his staff for making camp such a fun and successful experience for the kids. Our buildings and grounds crew is making great progress checking off the many summer maintenance items that help to keep our facility looking great. They have completed installation of new whiteboards in all of our classrooms. The whiteboards, along with eight new SmartBoard units, were acquired thanks to your generous support of our PFA’s fundraising efforts, especially the spring Auction. Installation of the SmartBoards was completed just this week and we are so excited to have them. Thank you.
We have also been carefully tracking the status of the pandemic as we prepare to welcome students back to campus next month. As has been the case throughout, it is an evolving situation. But, building on the success that we had last year and working in collaboration with public health officials we are confident in our safety plan. Like last year, our plan includes different measures that combine to help us mitigate the risk of transmission on campus. This layered approach includes the following:
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Vaccinations: We are strongly encouraging all who are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccination. We also ask that you inform our health office if your child has been vaccinated. This information is especially important in helping us manage possible cases that may arise.
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Face masks: All students in grades kindergarten and above and all staff will wear masks while indoors. Students will be provided with desk shields to use when eating lunch in their classrooms. Students and staff will be permitted to remove their masks when outdoors, except when in crowded situations. So, during normal recess and PE activities students will not have to wear masks.
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Social distancing: Students and staff will be asked to follow social distancing guidelines. In classrooms, desks will be no less than 3 feet apart. As was the case last year, access to school buildings will be limited to students and school staff.
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Cohorts: The students’ daily activities will be organized by cohorts so that they will have minimal interactions with students outside of their cohort. This measure helps us to contain any potential exposures. The cohorts will be by grade level. For our middle schoolers, this is a departure from last year’s procedures in which the cohorts were organized by homeroom. This means that we will be able to plan activities where students will be able to interact with all the members of their grade, not just their homeroom. Another related difference for our middle schoolers is that they will travel between rooms for some of their specials classes, whereas last year they had all of their lessons in the same room. We recognize that being in one room all day was taxing for our older students, especially. We are confident that this reorganization is prudent and hope that it will provide greater variety in the day for the middle school students.
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Ventilation: As we did last year, we will take steps to maintain good ventilation in each classroom. These include keeping windows open, making use of air purifiers, keeping classroom doors open, and constantly circulating air through our HVAC system.
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Cleaning protocols: Students and staff will be encouraged to use proper hand washing techniques. The use of hand sanitizer will be encouraged. High touch surfaces will be cleaned and disinfected regularly during the school day. After hours cleaning will include wiping down desks and high touch surfaces with disinfectant.
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Health monitoring: Also in keeping with last year’s safety plan, we will work in close collaboration with the Anne Arundel County Department of Health to address any suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 at school. The monitoring protocols are rather involved and go beyond the scope of this letter, but a key component is the commitment of our families to informing the school health office when a child experiences COVID-19 like symptoms or has had a known exposure to the virus. In addition, we will not be taking students’ temperatures during our morning car line as we did last year. The advice we have received from public health officials indicates that a more effective approach is to strongly encourage families to monitor their children’s health and to share that information with the school. We will share details about this element of our plan in a subsequent communication from our Health Office.
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Distance learning: If circumstances arise such that an entire class needs to quarantine, we will conduct lessons remotely. Such distance learning will not be available in circumstances in which an individual student must quarantine while in-person instruction goes forward. Those students will receive support from staff as they would during any absence. Last year we found that simultaneously conducting both in-person and distance learning was problematic.
With these measures in place, and thanks to the progress that has been made here in Maryland to combat the virus through the use of vaccinations, we are able to bring back some elements of our program that were missing or limited last year. Extended Day, After School Enrichment, and interscholastic sports will all be available in the fall. In addition, pizza and Chic-Fil-A lunches will be available again through the PFA, and we are happy to welcome back our Main and Market lunch program. More information about all of these offerings will be shared in subsequent communications.
We will continue to keep pace with the course of the pandemic and the guidance being provided by county, state, and federal public health officials. Last year was challenging in many ways. But by working together closely and cooperatively, we were able to maintain our in-person format for the bulk of the year without a single case of transmission happening here at school. Joining together in the same way, we are confident that we can continue to operate as an in-person school while mitigating the risks from the virus.
Please keep an eye out for subsequent communications in the next few weeks about start of year events. We are looking forward to seeing you back at school soon.
