Community Health Update

02.25.22
KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EMAIL:

  • Starting Monday, February 28, masks will be optional for all vaccinated students, faculty, and staff; at this time, masks will still be required for all visitors to campus, regardless of vaccination status. This protocol shift is in line with Massachusetts DPH and DESE guidelines.
  • We will return to mask-required the first week returning from Spring Break (March 28 to April 1)
  • Thank you to everyone who joined us Wednesday night! If you missed the Zoom, check out the highlights below.
  • And in case you're wondering, it's still not too late to opt-in to the antigen test program!
NEW INFORMATION
COVID-19 CASES AT A GLANCE
0 new cases
Total new cases since we shared numbers on February 18
0 cases
Total of the above new cases determined from pool testing and on campus rapid testing
0 MS student;
0 US student;
0 employees*
0 cases
Total of the above new cases determined from home testing

0 MS students;
0 US students;
0 employee*
Total cases since the start of school
140 positive cases
(100 student cases; 40 employees)
*The term "employee" encompasses all BVR faculty/staff
(full-time & part-time) as well as contracted workers.
Next community pool testing date
Wednesday, March 2, 2022
HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ZOOM
Here's what you need to know from Wednesday
We are going mask-optional now because the conditions are right, and we know we need to start taking our windows where we can. The science shows the rate of vaccination in a community and the quality of air ventilation are the two most important factors in minimizing the spread of Covid-19. Our community is 98 percent vaccinated and we have a state-of-the-art ventilation system.

We know that not seeing one another’s full faces while we are in person does have a negative impact. There is a toll that wearing masks is taking on our ability to communicate and feel connected. If we feel it is safe—as we do—it is incumbent upon us to follow suit with the state’s decision to lift the mask mandate.

Additional factors we considered were:

  1. Local rates of transmission
  2. Hospitalization rates
  3. High rates of vaccination in MA and low rates of transmission in schools
  4. Beaver's community testing data (since January)
  5. DESE's support of MA DPH’s decision to end the mask mandate on February 28. 
There will be times when we reinstate the mask mandate. We will be masked the first week back from Spring Break. This will give us a chance to refine our approach to being mask optional, should we need to. We will continue to add and subtract layers of protocols, depending on variables like travel and new variants that are highly transmissible. In all likelihood, there will be times in the near future when we might have to go back to requiring wearing masks for (hopefully) short periods of time. This is going to be part of our lives for a while longer; we have to get used to the "pendulum swinging" and adjusting our protocols to the current circumstances. 
Each community member is supported in making the choice that is right for them and for their family – day-to-day, experience to experience–about whether or not to apply masking as an added layer of protection.

To be a supportive community:

  • We will avoid making assumptions about why an individual might choose to wear or not wear a mask.
  • We, collectively, understand that variables change in everyone's lives and a decision that is right for someone under one set of circumstances on one day, could no longer be the best one on a different day—even if the circumstances outwardly appear the same.
  • We’ll ask community members to see masks as a necessary school supply and carry a mask with them at all times, just in case.
  • We’ll check in with one another, compassionately without judgment.
  • If we are working in close contact with a classmate, colleague, or friend who is wearing a mask, we won't think twice about asking whether they would appreciate our doing so as well in that setting.
Natural distancing does happen and we will continue to utilize our spaces to support that. We are not monitoring distancing while students are in the building, instead, we are leaving it up to them. HOWEVER, we are not filling spaces to capacity, just because things are safer now. We are still not having full school meetings or division meetings.
SOME REFRESHERS ON THE BASICS
Definition of Vaccinated: A person is considered fully vaccinated 2 weeks after completion of a two-dose mRNA series (Pfizer-BioNTech/Moderna) or one dose of the J&J/Janssen vaccine. (We have required Beaver employees and contractors to receive a booster in their vaccine series.)
Quarantine policy if you test positive:
If you are positive for COVID-19 you must self-isolate for a minimum of 5 days after either (1) symptom onset OR (2) after positive PCR or antigen test if you are asymptomatic. The day the sample was taken for the positive test or the day of symptom onset is considered day zero.
 
This means, after a positive COVID-19 test, students/employees can return to school on Day 6 (after the 5 day isolation period) if all the following apply:
 
  • They must be without a fever for 24 hours (without taking fever-reducing medications);
  • They must have experienced resolution of all other symptoms;
  • They must have a negative at-home rapid test PRIOR TO RETURN if they choose to return before day 11 of a positive test or onset of symptoms.

Following the five-day isolation period, individuals must mask for five additional days when around others indoors (except when actively eating and drinking). We will make arrangements for students to eat lunch in a designated area through day 10.
If you have any questions around these protocols, please email the Beaver Health Office