February 18, 2022
Dear Columbus Academy Families,
For every decision made throughout this Covid pandemic, we have consulted with medical professionals, carefully weighed the costs and benefits to children, and meticulously watched trends in data at the state, county and local levels. Our nurses, especially, have been incredibly diligent in gathering information on a daily basis and utilizing best practices while doing everything they can to keep everyone as healthy as possible under difficult conditions. With a huge amount of gratitude to them and to everyone in our community who has helped us get to this point, we provide this update.
Our campus will be mask-optional starting on Tuesday, February 22, as we return from Presidents Day weekend. This decision was based on many factors, including the drastic decline in Covid cases within our community over the past several weeks, the high vaccination rates among our students and faculty/staff, the verified improvements in indoor air quality within our buildings and the arrival of warmer weather that allows for more open windows and time spent outside.
Your support for the school during this pandemic has allowed us to invest heavily in improving indoor air quality on campus, a mitigation effort deemed by medical experts to be more important than masking. No expense was spared when the school upgraded all HVAC units and classroom ventilators with high-protection filters that were recommended by the CDC in addition to iWave devices that further protect against pathogens in the air via needlepoint bipolar ionization. The result has been close to hospital-quality air throughout our buildings, which was recently verified by indoor air quality assessments performed during school hours at full capacity.
Please read carefully the following community guidelines and recommendations to keep risk levels as low as possible:
- Keep your children home if they show any signs of illness consistent with COVID-19 such as congestion, fever, coughing, headaches or extreme fatigue.
- Masks are still strongly encouraged for unvaccinated individuals, close contacts of a person with COVID-19, those who are experiencing other respiratory illnesses, and anyone who is immunocompromised or lives with individuals who are immunocompromised.
- Continued advice from our medical experts is that medical-grade masks, particularly N95 and KN95, are the best face-coverings for individuals who seek to protect themselves from any airborne illness.
- We ask for everyone to embrace each family’s or individual’s choice of whether to wear a mask or not. Many will need to wear masks or will choose to still wear masks, particularly those vulnerable for health reasons, and should be able to do so without judgment. Please be compassionate by refraining from discussing or assuming anyone’s vaccination status or reasons for masking.
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If your children test positive for COVID-19, continue to contact the school nurses at nurse@columbusacademy.org or 614-509-2234 for instructions on returning to classes and extracurricular activities.
- For any students who become symptomatic while on campus, parents and guardians will be contacted if we feel that testing is recommended. Without your consent for testing, we will ask you to pick up your children.
- Contact the school nurses if you need a rapid antigen test.
Please keep in mind that masks may still be required on school buses and other forms of school transportation.
Sincerely,
COVID Response Team
Erich Hunker ’81, Assistant Head of School for Development and External Relations
Beckie Hoagland, School Nurse
Janet Fireman, School Nurse
Perry Doran, Director of Campus Safety and Security
Harland Young, Director of Buildings and Grounds
