I would like to think so, but based on the professional sports world and college campuses (I’m looking at you Novak Djokovic and UA - among many others), I’m not confident that any BS will be devoid of “that kid.” They certainly were around in my BS days; I doubt they incoming class is that much more mature than they were back in the day.
Agree — threat of being “that kid” is not as effective as we might hope. (Which is why I think there being an actual agreement to a protocol in order to be on campus is likely, in the case of Andover, according to how I’m reading things. It does not sound they are relying on “everyone just generally being on the same page” in terms of risk tolerance.)
I very much agree with @Calliemomofgirls ’ take on PA’s plan, though am also a biased stakeholder as an incoming parent of two kids.
Re: PA and boarders participating in club sports/activities or the like, per the Q&A it’s verboten:
"WILL BOARDING STUDENTS BE ALLOWED TO LEAVE CAMPUS TO PARTICIPATE IN OFF-CAMPUS PROGRAMMING SUCH AS CLUB SPORTS, NEW ENGLAND CONSERVATORY, COLLEGE CLINICS, ETC.?
Unfortunately, because of the potential risk these exposures introduce to the residential campus community, we cannot allow boarding students to participate in off-campus programming this fall. We may revisit these restrictions later in the year, if and when we reach a level of confidence in our community’s health to reconsider this restriction. "
Good point…and those students who are hoping to play college sports will likely have a hard time saying no to club sports. We are supposed to get a covid specific addition to the student handbook, but I’m not sure when, so it will be interesting to see what is and isn’t allowed.
I was just reminded of Andover new HOS background before becoming president of Grinnell college. Managing this crisis and leading a school’s plan is squarely in his wheelhouse, which explains the robustness (critics might call it overkill?) of theIr program.
http://www.epidemiolog.net/mhp/institute/2002/spkrbios/drkington.htm
Even assuming all day students follow the rules, there is still a lot of additional exposure with them coming and going daily. Their parents will continue to go to work, there are quite a few that work as faculty or staff at nearby colleges, teachers, doctors etc. Plus many have younger siblings who will be attending their local private/public school, and participate in activities there or elsewhere. So I think the additional exposure from club sports would be drop in the bucket (You can’t ban the younger siblings from playing). I think the bigger issue is the resentment of boarding students if their day student counterparts can play sports in the fall while they can’t.
I do think schools may be underestimating the day student exposure, although at least the college connection of a number of day student families is well known. But then again there is also faculty exposure, many have younger kids in local private and public schools and loads of activities as well, plus some have spouses working jobs elsewhere too. And a fair number of the coaches have side jobs running club teams too. So there will be exposure no matter what and they just have to decide how much of it they can handle and how they manage it.
The other thing is what % of day students there are. I can certainly see some BS parents/kids being put out by the flexibility of the day students. But then again, as mentioned day students won’t be “quarantined” They’ll likely have more exposure so sports is just one vector for the spread of Covid. And teachers don’t all live on campus and if they do, many have spouses/partners who work off campus.
Andover, Exeter and Choate each have 20-25% boarders, over 200 kids apiece. Not a small population.
That said, each school also has as many or more faculty + staff, many of whom obviously live off campus, or, as @Happytimes2001 points out even if they live on campus they have a spouse/partner who works elsewhere.
Both populations add to the overall risk.
My supposition is that day student families may be asked to sign some sort of pledge, though there’s no reasonable way they could enforce such a thing beyond the honor system.
We received a more “finalized” version of Lizardkid’s return to school plan. I am comfortable with that plan. On the other hand, I am also looking at what is going on with public schools (as both a parent of a LPS student and a teacher in a LPS) and it just doesn’t seem like they can safely go back. Some large school districts have already released only online learning for the fall. I’m just worried that this well lead states to say ALL schools must be online (even though some boarding schools are in a completely different position to open). I’m also worried that a spike within LPS will force a closure of boarding schools even if they continue to have no cases.
@vwlizard Will likely depend a lot on your head of school. Large schools, public and private have very different risk assessments. The state won’t lead closures but the BS will follow local advice and cases. No one wants to be in a situation where it gets worse than March-April in MA ( if that’s the state your BS is in). I just saw that over 1 million people have been tested in MA. That’s nearly 1 in 4. And I know a handful who actually had Covid during the rough patch and their doctors suggested riding it out at home. They did. They were not tested. So the 1 million plus number isn’t even accurate.
@Happytimes2001 States may not lead closures but they could certainly pull the plug on the whole reopening thing to begin with. I feel like tide is starting to turn in the NE, 2-3 weeks ago we were on very solid grounds for re-opening of all schools but now that numbers are climbing and seemingly out of control in much of the country it is not hard to imagine the school openings will end up being a hard no, and the enthusiasm for schools opening is waning quickly. And it is far worse for schools that bring students from all over, as a major concern is people from other states with much higher infection rates bringing the virus back to the NE. There is a lot of discussion around how bringing 1M students from all over back into Boston area in September is a disaster waiting to happen. Most are college students obviously, but boarding schools are part of that equation. Unless we get a handle on the virus in the next month somehow we could see online learning as far as eye can see. MA governor pulled the plug on the sleep away camps something like 3 days before they were scheduled to open, so the precedent is there too. In any event, all school re-opening plans at this point are subject to change, save for the schools/districts that already threw in the towel and made the online only call.
@417WHB Agree, there’s a lot of risk we can’t control. I follow the numbers MA closely as I often find some of the reporting to be overly excited about the negative. Numbers are very good in NE right now as you know but people are still very nervous ( for good reason). There are so many issues.
Numbers are very different outside of NE. IF you go state by state or even county by county the story can be REALLY different. When MA was really in trouble (near Boston) there were almost no cases in the Berkshires so people there weren’t thinking the same things. I wonder if it’s the same in CA and TX.
At the moment, most of the embassies are closed so it’s likely many international students won’t be back in September ( maybe in Oct/Nov or the Spring). Kids from places like CA, AZ with very high rates might decide to stay home vs. doing online courses on site. Many of the colleges are doing hybrids and many are all online so I think the 1MM number might be much lower. We’ll have to see.
Once the numbers started falling in MA, it was a huge decline. Weird how the math works in both directions exponentially. Never thought I’d use that type of math thinking again. I keep thinking the states with bad numbers will go straight up and then fall precipitously.
I just keep hoping for the best. Let’s hope the two months before school allows time to pass and numbers to drop.
Does anybody know what other schools are moving to this block system this year of having the entire year of a course completed in one semester? Taking 2 courses per term? Anyone attempt to do Calc in a term? Please help with concerns.
@Golfgr8 Mercersburg is considering the block system. We are supposed to learn more next week.
@cinnamon1212 Mercersburg is offering those students who are taking the SAT on campus in Aug to just stay on campus and quarantine there for the 2 weeks until school starts.
@417WHB I agree with you about day student risk. I am not yet satisfied that it is not being underestimated. It is one thing to ask day students to “adhere to a high standard of health behavior”, and another to know exactly what each family’s exposure is through parent jobs, appointments, activities, and just moving around their communities.
@buuzn03 “Everyone at DS’s school is just chomping at the bit to go back.” Do parents have same reactions too or different one?
@hellomaisy makes sense. Hotchkiss is not a testing site, so that solution wouldn’t work for them.
My current thinking is that since boarding schools in New England are in the one area of the country where (at least today) cases are stable or declining, the big risk is bringing in the kids from the hot spots. . . . which, I suppose, is much of the rest of the country. 
@casinoofny i don’t know any new families and of course, I don’t know every family…but of the ones I do know, the parents are also keeping their fingers crossed hoping they go back. My son says he knows of no one that is hesitant to return.
Block system seems really problematic except for kids who chose that approach ( like Cambridge School of Weston kids). I cannot imagine my kids learning Calc in 1 block, or really anything else for that matter. I think speech, art, photography and maybe a specialized literature course could work. The mainstays like English, a language, math and science would suffer if taught in that format. I’ve found my kids get overloaded with a single thing and have to take a mental break before going back.
That isn’t even factoring in testing. The shortened cycle would mean the kid is further away from having reviewed the material.
As the month is progressing and plans are starting emerge about how the schools will be opening, it does not look like there will be any movement on any of the waitlists. I am truly sad for my son who wants nothing more then to have the boarding school experience. We do have a day school option, but he is not thrilled about it.
His rationale - even if it is coming for a 14 year old - is that if they are going to be online - can’t they just fit me in somewhere? He was waitlisted at all of the schools to which he applied. My heart is broken for him.
@Happytimes2001, In California it is definitely county by county, and even town by town.
In Santa Barbara County, the huge numbers are from a prison up north. The southern part, where Cate is, has very low numbers. The school is relying on that situation staying the same.
In my county, we have really good mask compliance. There aren’t many covid-deniers. Indoor dining and gyms were never opened. Our numbers are spiking in a way that doesn’t make sense. One theory floating out there is that employees of San Quentin live in some parts of my county. They are bringing it home. There are definitely some towns that are far worse than others - the poorer ones.
It is a mess and there is no simple explanation of what is happening in California. I just hope the new shut down helps.