I appreciate your support for our efforts to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 at Mead Hall, to keep our students, faculty and families healthy as well as to reduce the number of quarantines in order to keep our students on campus. I want to provide you an update of our policies and I invite you to reach out to us with questions.
Although we have a higher rate of Covid positives this year so far, the changed quarantine rules recently issued by SC DHEC have reduced the number of quarantines for each case we have in comparison with last year. Students are quarantined only if they are within 3 feet of a COVID-19 positive individual for a cumulative 15 minutes or more when both are masked, otherwise it is 6 feet. In most cases, we can distance students 3 feet in classrooms. Masks are worn indoors by students in grades K – 12. Masks are not worn when students are actively engaged in athletics, band, or theater, so in these situations we must use 6 feet as a distance for determining close contacts, although efforts are made to keep students out of this range.
Each time we have an individual on campus who tests positive for COVID-19, we initiate contact tracing and contact the families of students who are close contacts. DHEC instructs us to send close contacts home to quarantine and we inform DHEC as required. Usually one of the division heads will contact parents by phone. Our Director of Student Health, Mrs. Amy Calfee, will follow up with an email with details of the quarantine, when to test, and when a student may return. This is done in compliance with patient privacy laws. We will not notify the community each time we have a Covid positive individual on campus. Instead, we are providing the numbers each week by campus in this In the Loop newsletter and we will provide a running total of our numbers. We also provide the Aiken County incidence rate.
One day after a student has gone into quarantine remote learning is initiated and students and parents are contacted by their division head with information. Each teacher will provide remote learning instruction appropriate to the subject and grade level. We encourage students and parents to reach out to teachers and/or division heads as needed.
It is a whole community effort to keep our students healthy, to keep them learning on campus, and to ensure that learning continues effectively if students are quarantined. I would like to thank you for keeping your children home when they are exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 and having them tested, for following the quarantine requirements, for taking care to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 outside of school, and for supporting our health and safety policies. I believe that we are all working together and succeeding as a school community despite the challenges of COVID-19 this year. Let’s keep this up and ensure a school year of health, wellbeing, and academic success for our students!
Frank Sawyer
