Covid Update
As we head into the end of the school year, I want to provide you with a Covid-19 update.
Our late-winter early-spring days were Covid-free, with the exception of the occasional student quarantine. This is, in large part, undoubtedly due to the efforts of our parents to keep their students home when they are sick, and to limit contact with others who may be sick.
Based on this knowledge, we will no longer take temperatures as students enter the building each morning. This practice served us well at the beginning of the school year, and certainly helped us through the winter months, but it is no longer necessary. We are looking forward to welcoming our students into the building with a traditional “Good Morning” rather than a temperature check!
Our Health Department and the CDC continue to strongly recommend masks in schools through the end of the current school year. The most recent communication from the suburban health departments states, in part:
We still recommend masks for students, faculty, and staff through at least the end of the school year. This is still the best public health practice in the absence of the ability to vaccinate children under the age of 12 years.
a. As of now, the CDC’s school guidance remains unchanged. Most students will still be unvaccinated and schools should follow CDC’s guidance for schools.
b. Teachers, school administrators, and staff should continue to follow CDC’s school
guidance until more staff and children are vaccinated.
c. The CDC Director has stated publicly that there will be no other changes for this
academic year and has signaled changes prior to fall.
d. Research has indicated that outdoor activities pose very minimal risk to transmit COVID-19; as such, you may consider changing policies to allow for the removal of masks for outdoor activities; this extension could also be extended to athletes and spectators at outdoor sporting events.
Our protocols for masking have definitely evolved throughout the school year. They continue to include the following:
- Masks are to be worn in the building. Our teachers focus on times when social distancing is impractical, especially when students are working in small groups or working one to one with a teacher.
- Students are offered frequent mask breaks throughout the day, especially when they are working independently at their desk, or are working at a distance of more than three feet from a classmate.
- Students do not wear masks at lunch.
- Wearing masks outdoors or in PE class, is a personal choice. Some of our students chose to wear masks outside when it was cold, but we do not require them out of doors.
Please keep in mind that our building is air conditioned, and even during the warm end of the year school days, our students are cool in the building.
Beginning tomorrow, there are 13 face-to-face school days left. This year has been an exercise in perseverance and endurance for our teachers, students, and families. We are asking that our families support us in following the guidelines recommended by our local health department for these next 13 days, as we navigate all of our end of the year events.
