November 5, 2021
Dear Members of the St. Mark's Community,
I write today to share updated information regarding our St. Mark’s health and safety protocols. Our Health and Safety Task Force remains in close contact with our consultants at EH&E and has identified the appropriate protocols and plans for moving forward over the coming months.
In the interest of doing all we can to keep our school community healthy, we have decided to continue with our current protocol that requires masks to be worn indoors through December, 2021. This decision has been informed by recent relevant facts and some longer term considerations. As you may know, there have been a number of positive COVID cases in the Southborough area recently, and the level of community incidents has been higher in recent weeks. The time period from now through the beginning of winter break will be critical for mitigating transmission, especially since students, faculty, and staff will travel extensively over Thanksgiving break and positivity rates in the communities surrounding St. Mark's are higher.
Please know also that we will continue required weekly PCR testing through December, and we will conduct an arrival PCR test for our community upon returning from Thanksgiving break. We will also plan to continue with our two lunch shifts until the December break.
We will tentatively plan for a “masks optional” protocol when students return in January, after results of an arrival PCR test. We will also plan to restart seated meals—when students dine together by advisory once a week and by House groups once a week—in our Dining Hall in January. We will reassess these plans in mid-December and early January with the help of our consultants.
I am very proud of the fact that our baseline protocols in other areas remain strong. These protocols include our mechanical ventilation with bipolar ionization and HEPA filtration in certain spaces, the overall number of individuals in our community who are vaccinated, and our Visitor Policy, all of which are complemented by our mask policy.
I am confident that our protocols will continue to mitigate risk, and I appreciate the attention given to these protocols by faculty, staff, and students and their families during these first months of the school year. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to support our health and safety efforts.
