Message from Ben Griggs, Head of School |
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Dear TMS community,
As you may recall from my letter in the Portal on December 18th, Governor Newsom's Stay-at-Home Order is currently the primary guidance dictating TMS’ ability to return to campus for in-person learning. Though the Order was scheduled to end on January 8th, Marin Health and Human Services has issued a press release forecasting that the Order will be indefinitely extended at some point today.
The Stay-at-Home Order can't be lifted until ICU capacity is above 15% in the Bay Area region. The California Department of Public Health makes ICU capacity projections based on four different factors: estimated regional ICU capacity available, measure of current community transmission, current regional case rates, and the proportion of cases being admitted to the ICU. As of January 8th, projected ICU capacity in the Bay Area region is at 3.0%. Once ICU capacity in the Bay Area goes back above 15%, it is unclear how long the region will remain under the Order before it is lifted. The original version of the Order indicated a three-week timeframe, but Dr. Matt Willis said on a call today that we may not know the new timeframe until the text of the new Order is released. Or, it is possible that the time may be adjusted according to contextual circumstances.
Given all of the above information, I regret to inform you that we are not allowed to return to campus during the week of January 25th as we had hoped. The way the Order is currently written, TMS is not allowed to return to campus until the Order is lifted. There may be exceptions and further waivers that are added to the Order that would allow TMS to return to campus, but there isn't one currently in place for TMS given two factors: 1) we are a high school, and 2) we did not return to campus before the Stay-at-Home Order was imposed. The decision not to return in November of 2020 was made with broad input from our parents and guardians, students, and employees. At that time, I believed that staying remote was the best decision, for myriad reasons that I laid out at that time. Admittedly, I did not predict that the decision at that time would limit future options. Marin County Public Health has said on more than one occasion that it believed there would be a broadening of waiver categories for schools, but as of this writing, the California Department of Public Health has not enacted such a change.
We will continue our campus preparations so that TMS will be ready to return to in-person learning once the Order is lifted; this will also depend on Marin County’s tier status, as we are also excluded from returning as long as Marin County is in the purple (most restrictive) tier. We should be able to give *at least* three weeks’ notice for a possible return date, and we will survey families to get a sense of which students will return to in-person instruction, and which students will stay remote at that time.
Finally, please don’t hesitate to contact me if you’d like to speak further about any of these issues. I will also be hosting a “Connecting with Ben” meeting on Thursday, January 14th at 9am. RSVP information is included below.
We’re in this together,
Ben
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Join Ben, Thursday, January 14th, at 9:00am for an informal, virtual, breakfast meeting. You will have a chance to ask questions, express your point of view, and meet other parents.
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