Dear parents:
We are writing to inform you that a student in the 6th Grade class has tested positive for CoVid-19 and was last in school on Thursday, March 4th. The School is currently implementing its CoVid-19 Action Plan: implementing track and trace procedures, whilst taking advice from the Ulster County Department of Health. (UCDOH)
Starting today, the 6th Grade class will be quarantined for 10 days. The NYSDOH Health Advisory requires contacts to self-quarantine for 10 days and to self-monitor symptoms for days 11-14. Contacts will be instructed to self-isolate should symptoms appear.
All teachers who have been in contact with the infected individual must quarantine for 10 days. The same rules for students apply to the teachers. This includes the class teacher and the special subject teachers.
We just celebrated the 100th day of covid free on-campus learning. Since school started, we did expect at some point that someone, whether a faculty/staff member, parent, or student, could test positive for CoVid-19 and will have potentially exposed some community members and it is a testimony of everyone's vigilance that it took so long for Mountain Laurel Waldorf School to have a student get infected. It will be easy to assume that they were doing something risky, but they may have just been going to the grocery store. We need to be supportive of anyone in the community who is taken ill and refrain from judgement and curiosity when someone does test positive for CoVid-19.
Meanwhile, the risk for CoVid infection is still very high in Ulster County. Let's all stay vigilant and consider how our personal behavior may open up risk for the community members we are in contact with. The choices we make in our personal life have an impact on those around us, so please make every effort to limit your exposure to CoVid-19 in order to protect the school community. Please, know that each exposure is a cumulative health risk and we ask that you limit contacts to the extent possible within your own class cohort. We therefore continue to ask that you refrain from signing up your child in extracurricular activities where they could come in contact with a wider group of people, to limit indoor gatherings to only members of your household. Please, no parties, no sleepovers, no carpools until we can all be safe.
Together we can get through the remainder of the school year in the best way possible – one that supports and nurtures our children and each other.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any questions.
In solidarity,
The Administration
