January 29, 2021
Dear Columbus Academy Families,
Next week, please hold onto your hats.
Our faculty and staff have been assigned the days of February 2-6 to get their first round of vaccinations at either Hilliard Davidson High School or Reynoldsburg High School with over 17,000 other school employees of Franklin County. While this is absolutely fantastic news – as it is one of the first signs we may be able to turn the corner on this difficult virus – it comes with no shortage of logistical complications.
We have no control over the schedule of the vaccines for each individual teacher, and we have been advised that teachers must sign up for the first available slots. Still, we plan to continue school in person for Lower School and at 50% capacity for MS and US even while all our employees at some point over those five days will travel from campus to either Reynoldsburg or Hilliard and back to get their first shot.
We hope to be able to cover every class with minimal disturbance to students while teachers get vaccinated but also may need to disrupt your children’s schedules – even possibly cancelling classes because we could have multiple teachers scheduled for the same time to get their shots and/or faculty and staff who experience intense symptoms after their first inoculation and therefore may not feel well enough to teach the next day.
We are excited and hopeful that this next step of vaccinations will begin to settle some of the serious health concerns students and teachers bring with them each day to school. We will still have to follow a mask policy and social distancing for the foreseeable future, but inoculation is an excellent step in the right direction – even if the path may be a bit rocky next week.
Warmly,
