October 23, 2020
Dear parents and guardians,
I hope that you are doing well and having a good end to your week. Thank you to everyone who attended the webinar and participated in the Q&A afterward. I hope that we provided some certainty in a time that continues to be ever-changing as we try to plan for the remainder of the school year.
I am writing today to share additional updates that have developed since planning for the webinar last evening. As I stated in the pandemic update at the introduction of the session, COVID-19 cases in Massachusetts are increasing. More concerning, the number of daily cases in Worcester County has nearly doubled since the end of September. Additionally, our local hospitals in both Gardner and Leominster have had significant increases in COVID-19 patients over the last weeks. When looking at the surrounding areas on the COVID-19 Community-Level Data Map, which is updated weekly, the neighboring communities of Leominster, Fitchburg, Winchendon, and Gardner are all highlighted as areas of concern.
After the webinar last night, we also received news that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has temporarily ordered all skating rinks (with a few exceptions) to be closed at 5 pm today, October 23rd, through November 7. We are working to determine whether there are any avenues for Cushing to be exempted from this mandate and intend to keep you apprised of any developments.
As has been our practice since the start of this academic year, we continue to explore ways to appropriately maintain the healthy community that we have created over the last nine weeks. With this in mind, we are immediately taking the following steps:
- We will increase our weekly surveillance testing from 20% of the total campus population to 25% over the next few weeks. Individuals tested will be strategically selected to help mitigate risk.
- Our Campus Operations subgroup will conduct more frequent reviews of campus signage for clarity and classroom spacing for distancing.
- We have officially canceled all fall season interscholastic athletic competitions. We had held out hope that we could perhaps play a game or two outdoors against local boarding schools, potentially in the last few weeks of the semester. However, the evolving circumstances in Massachusetts have made it difficult to do so safely.
We will continue to proceed with caution as we conclude the fall semester with the goal of impacting the on-campus student experience as little as possible. In addition to the above measures, we are considering de-densifying campus by having staff (non-teaching employees) work remotely and having day students attend classes remotely (or choose to become boarders) for the remainder of the term, if circumstances warrant. If a day student is interested in becoming a boarder, please contact Catherine Pollock, Associate Head of School for Enrollment (cpollock@cushing.org).
As we head into the final month of the term, I value the patience, flexibility, and understanding our community has been able to provide. We are all making sacrifices and compromises, and it’s common to have a high level of anxiety during this difficult time. Though this has been an extraordinarily trying year, we have the ability to help one another through this and reach the other side of this pandemic stronger. I know we can do it together as one community, supporting each other in meaningful ways that we all need.
Sincerely,
