September 8, 2020
Dear Cushing Families,
I hope that everyone had a great Labor Day weekend and that you were able to enjoy some outdoor fun while maintaining good viral mitigation strategies!
As we enter our third week of classes, it is rewarding to see our on-campus community members safely—although in a new way—engaged in the academics, athletics, arts, and residential life experiences that are at the heart of a Cushing education. I hope that the weekly Parent Scoop newsletter provides you with a sense of the activities and the positive energy and spirit present on campus.
We have begun a surveillance testing phase on campus, and I am pleased to report that last week we received negative results to all tests that were processed. We are testing approximately 20% of our population each Wednesday, employing a strategy recommended by Dr. Anne Hoen, epidemiologist at Dartmouth Medical School and member of our Bring the Penguins Home Task Force. This testing will include members of various groups and Waddles on campus. We will continue this strategy once per week on Wednesdays for the foreseeable future.
As promised and outlined in communications over the summer, our medical team is considering some additional privileges for students since we have achieved a successful re-population of campus. These are being carefully considered as the team is trying to balance the predicted surge of cases nationwide due to the Labor Day Weekend, while acknowledging the good work that students and adults have been doing on the Cushing campus to keep everyone safe.
The team is continuing these discussions, and I have been passing along student and parent concerns regarding the difficult yet necessary practices that the Academy is using to keep our community safe and healthy. I will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, September 17th at 7:00 pm Eastern Time to announce how we will be moving forward and to outline some privileges that the medical team is comfortable with approving and answer any questions you might have. The webinar will also be available online afterward. Join the webinar here.
Additionally, we have changed our "Reopening" webpage to the "Keeping Cushing Healthy" page with resources, updates, etc. Please feel free to check out the page and refer to it.
Finally, although we are in a relatively low infection rate area, and Massachusetts as a whole is maintaining a low number of cases compared to other parts of the country, we must be continually mindful that congregate living environments such as Cushing require extra vigilance, care, and protection. Each individual must make decisions for the good of the entire community. Our community has individuals at varying degrees of risk, and I continue to ask that all members of our on-campus community make decisions with the community as a primary focus.
Please keep in mind that dozens of people have worked countless hours to Bring Our Penguins Home, and all of our families so far have complied with our requests to be safe and take precautions, resulting in the favorable position that we are in now. We are committed to safely Keeping Our Penguins Home, and it is imperative that we all maintain this level of discipline to keep our community safe for the duration of the semester. Thank you for your continued support and partnership in this critical work.
Sincerely,
