Covid and Fall Enrollment at BS

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Cate gave more details of the plan today, but not a ton. Seniors come back Aug 29, staggered arrivals for the rest, then classes start 9/8. Test results required before arrival, test upon arrival, quarantine until your results are back. Facilities for isolation will be added if necessary. Campus is on lock down for first 3-5 weeks, with the exception of day students who are expected to severely limit any outside contact. Each kid has to bring 7-10 masks which must be worn in public spaces.

Lots of adaptations to the campus, especially notable are “permanent” (?) outdoor classrooms, wired for tech.

Lots of similarities to other schools - Dorms split into cohorts, lots of additional sanitation and protocols. A three- tiered level of escalating protocol - no positives, some infections, and basically shut down. They will be ready to switch to DL at any time, if necessary.

School daily schedule starts later so there is time to screen everyone. No classes on Saturdays, but same basic block schedule otherwise - except blocks after dinner, too. Meals are given more time for crowd control, no self serve, more grab and go options.

They are committed to athletics, performing arts (the play will be performed outside), and even chorus - outside with social distancing (this one I am skeptical about).

Two month-long breaks. School done June 8.

@dramakid2 - I am right there with you wavering between panic and seriousness. I want to be optimistic- I so desperately want school to be a “go”. But the spiking numbers are scary. Just when I thought I had a grip, nope. I am back to irrational (?) worry again.

I am amazed that the faculty are willing to do this - it is their health at stake more than the kids. But they seem confident, and are assuring us that they are working with the county to meet all health standards.

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Did Deerfield actually say the boarding school students cannot leave campus during the term? We just have the ‘needing school approval’ language to leave campus but questions have been asked and answered with they will approve if a good case is made and you are not traveling to covid hotbed. The plans posted on here from other schools had the same approval needed language.
It makes no sense to me since nobody is approving the travel for day students, and we have a ton of them (close to 30%), and large chunk of the serious athletes are day students (not faculty kids, living off campus completely, some fairly far away). We may not have any real sports to speak of in the fall or winter, so if they want these kids to come back they have to give them the option to play elsewhere. Same for the serious musicians etc.
But even outside that, the somewhat draconian lockdown rules for boarders are in direct contrast to day students who will have far more freedoms and opportunities which some parents at our school also pointed out.

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It is unlikely that there will be club teams and outside tournaments.

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The Hyde School in Maine announced their plan. They are starting early @mid August and also offering a modified version of their summer leadership experience to their students.

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SPS also opening for students. I believe Andover is still silent.

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@CateCAParent Outdoor structures wired for technology sounds great. You are lucky to be in CA.

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Why do you think that? So many teams started back up already, in CT officially last week. NY is starting on Monday. DS just commented yesterday how many of his friends are playing already, there were games/tournaments last weekend in MD, DE, FL, MS and likely a bunch of other places. Some are traveling quite far in the pandemic to do so which I don’t think is all that wise but I suppose if you are rising senior or even junior and you missed your school season you are desperate to get some recent game tape to send to college coaches.

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Tournament (golf) last week in CT. We are also on a club team up north for another sport that has already been practicing for a month. Also, having been up here now for a month, I can tell you of several soccer, ice hockey, lax and field hockey clubs that are currently practicing. Kids are also sending in practice highlight tapes because they had no season. There are tournaments starting up next week in some states. BE CAREFUL EVERYONE & STAY SAFE IN YOUR TRAVELS!

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We still have travel teams and tournaments going on in Florida even as our beaches and bars have closed (again)…and our local schools have started pre-season training. I would guess fall club sports will happen, even if school sports don’t. I can definitely see the appeal of an athlete choosing to stay home this year so they have a better chance of playing their sport. Fortunately for us, it’s a non-issue for our non-athletic child.

Our school is not elaborating on off campus “restrictions” yet. They feel if they make a decision today, it would be overly conservative, so they’d rather wait, which makes sense. But with tuition due for a lot of schools today, I can see how difficult it would be to pay without more information.

The big issue seems to be the mandatory 14 day quarantine that several states have, though I have to assume that will change a lot by September. The states that are hotbeds right now surely won’t still be in two months.

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baseball club teams are practicing here in Cal, but I don’t know about tournaments.

We were debating over dinner last night what fall sports would happen (with or without games).

Football? Water polo? Lax? Lots of close contact and breathing on each other. Can’t wear a mask in the pool. But chlorine is good.

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@Happytimes2001 - Yeah, the weather in the Santa Barbara area is definitely a plus for this situation. It is pretty much perfect year round. And the school can go on lock down better than most.

But at the end of the day, we are talking about trying to get teens to comply with rules that deeply impinge on their socializing. There is not much room for hormones in covid plans. This isn’t going to be easy anywhere.

I don’t think there is a lot schools can do to control what day students do off campus. I am surprised that there are special covid rules for fac brats, though. I can see that not sitting well at all with boarders. Thanks for keeping us updated @Golfgr8 .

This too shall pass. This too shall pass. This too shall pass.

Has it passed yet?

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@CateCAParent, this isn’t even close to passing (I’m sorry). My so-called best friend just told me that she thinks Thacher won’t open as scheduled this fall due to the surge we are seeing in California. I replied, “That’s the nastiest thing anybody’s ever said to me.” I just don’t know what we’ll do if our son doesn’t go back to the place he’s been so happy at.

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@janehoya It is just too soon to know what will be possible in September. Did you see USC reversal on their re-opening yesterday? Sounds like they got a lot of pushback from LA county, the state is walking back the re-opening in a major way due to the current outbreak. I am not sure when the boarding schools have to make the final call. But I also think if they do reopen the BS life will be very different from what students are expecting/are used to, and if it turns out to be a disaster that may be quite detrimental to the schools as well. I certainly would not want to be a school administrator right now, anywhere.

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Mercersburg announced its plan for return to campus yesterday. We will all be back on campus, with some significant differences, including the introduction of the “Mercersburg Intensive”, a new short-term, one-course interim term that will take the kids from thanksgiving to January. Every faculty member has to offer a course during the Intensive, and each will have 3-6 students learning/researching these new subjects/topics. It sounds in my mind similar to the “J-term” we used to have a Mount Holyoke, a month-long mini-semester in which to take a class (serious or not, your choice) that was of interest to you.

Mercersburg, unlike many colleges, is actually delaying return to campus, so that instead of coming back mid-august, they don’t return until the second week of Sept, with classes starting the 14th.

I haven’t waded through all of the info yet, and many pieces aren’t resolved yet (like athletics, our family-style meal tradition, etc), but I’m encouraged by the innovative thinking, and the efforts to be safe while attempting to provide an authentic residential learning experience. They have also enlisted many outside scientific and medical advisors, so I have to trust that their plans are well thought out.

Stay safe everyone…

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@417WHB, intellectually I know you are right. Emotionally I can’t even fathom a change of stated plans. It’s going to be a bumpy ride!

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We all have to be flexible and “fathom” the possibility of a change in plans.

I received a letter from kid’s future prep school in MA with 3 plans depending on various criteria, and a warning that depending on circumstances, which plan is in effect can change at any time. (The example given is that even if all the requirements are “green” (everyone on campus), and there have been no cases on campus, if the governor mandates the closure of all in person education, they will go to “red” (distance learning).)

And as heartbreaking as it is, remember that we are not the first to endure such hardship. When DD’s prep school first moved their upper school to its current location during the Great Depression, the opening of the school year was delayed due polio - at that time the school still had ties to the Harvard community, and Harvard also had a delayed opening.

I realize that many wonder if the $ are worth it, if it’s going to be distance learning.

For some, that may be true.

For me, although it’s a leap of faith, my LPS sucked before March, and things have just gotten worse. Unbelievably b-a-d.

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Hotchkiss plan just announced. They are having day students after all (day students are only 4% of the student body) but previously day students were assigned a room and now they will not be, but will have another place to study.

Much more, of course, and there is a FAQ page on the website.

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Choate modified their re-opening plan this week. They originally required a 14 day quarantine prior to arrival on campus. Now they are doing the quarantine on campus, after arrival. During that time, orientation and classes will be online.

Frankly, the new plan makes much more sense. It ensures a real quarantine and allows isolation of the inevitable arrival of some initially asymptomatic, COVID positive kids on campus.

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While we all wish our kids can get back to campus and return to a pre-Covid life, that sadly isn’t an easy reality with this dangerous novel virus running rampant in the U.S.

SPS just announced their very vague return “plans” which left so many unanswered questions yet they expect parents to sign waivers, pay full tuition, and send their children off to campus (or sit at home remotely at full cost, and separate but not possibly equal). The new rector has frankly talked down to parents about how our kids need to be back on campus. Her interests are to serve the school’s financial needs.

SPS is apparently open to the idea of returning after Thanksgiving break for the two week session, they are open to letting kids venture into Concord (population 50,000), they are open to the idea of inter-scholastic sports this Fall, they will have kids travel (fly, public transport etc) from and through Coronavirus hot spots and go directly to campus, they will have a large number of doubles, they haven’t figured out how to handle the bathrooms, etc. They have not given any clear answers on how faculty, faculty families, and staff will be treated and segregated from students in dining, etc.

In senior residential living communities and prisons, the virus has spread like wildfire. It got there from employees/staff (who come and go each day back into their communities) and from new admittees into the facilities. People leaving the facilities are a weak link in all this.

All in all, SPS’s current “plans” are IMHO too vague, too permissive, and not in line with realities of our new world. While Concord, NH may have low Covid numbers at this moment, the students will be arriving from many locations, traveling through many locations, and the faculty/staff will be encountering people in communities outside of Concord where they live (or, in case of faculty spouse or kids, work or go to school). Taking a myopic view of Concord, NH is short sighted and not in line with Dr. Fauci’s warnings or, frankly, common sense as numbers skyrocket around our nation in this still first wave of the virus.

The Rector told us to teach our kids heightened hygiene (generally good advice) - but this from a headmaster who has repeatedly licked her fingers to turn pages on multiple webinars this Spring. She also told us to trust the SPS administration with this- but I’m not impressed with what I saw on campus this June (including: multiple employees not wearing masks and not social distancing; an employee who did wear a mask but only over his mouth and not nose; saw a taxi (yes, someone was using an actual taxi) on campus; saw photos of the SPS Moving Squad not wearing masks or distancing either as they handled SPS students’ belongings (before the administration took down the pictures), etc) and what I’ve heard from faculty members living on campus. So, not comfortable with the “trust us” request.

This is not the flu. It can be deadly and it can cause lifelong complications. It does affect young people despite the wishful thinking of perhaps trustees looking at bottom lines.

We can be aggressive in returning to BS campuses with a come what may attitude - or we can be diligently and considerately cautious - taking small steps out- knowing that additional time gives us more of a chance for treatment advances, vaccines, and good information.

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@Apparently1 I don’t have anything helpful to say, but I just wanted to say I’m so sorry. This would stress me out, too. As stressful as the health crisis already is, we need to feel comfortable in the leadership – we need to feel like we can trust the judgement of the Captain on the bridge of any boat we board.