May 24, 2020
Dear Prince Avenue Families:
Our Campus Safety Committee continues working diligently to reopen our campus. We are focusing on two major areas in our implementation, which are the health and safety of our family-school community and the educational experience of our students.
Due to the life cycles of schools, athletics is leading the way as we resume on campus conditioning (not practice, but conditioning) for student-athletes on June 8. This week, Athletic Director Ricketts is meeting with our coaching staff to instruct them on our conditioning phase-in procedures as we prepare to welcome student-athletes back on campus, using a controlled approach. You will be hearing more about these procedures in the days that follow.
We plan to return to school August 10, and we are basing our increased campus cleaning and sanitation procedures on science and common sense. You have been very generous with your recommendations to me on how this should be handled; please know we are ordering supplies that comply with the CDC’s recommendations for germ and virus destruction, while also being mindful not to overload our school environment with chemicals that can be harmful to our students, faculty, and staff.
One of the many benefits of being an independent school is we are INDEPENDENT. Thus, we take recommendations from federal, state, and local officials, and use our collective wisdom and experience to develop and implement procedures of our own.
Of course, we have developed learning solutions for several scenarios as you would expect us to; however, the combination of our area’s low infection rate and our plan for increased cleaning and disinfecting led us to decide to return to a traditional school environment in August. One part of our increased emphasis on the health and safety of our students is the hiring of a full-time school nurse, which I am happy to report has been completed.
We will update you with more details of our reopening plan in the weeks ahead. On behalf of the faculty and staff, we wish you a great start to your summer!
With warm regards and in His service,
