I talked with my husband the other night about feeling safe sending our kid back. She has asthma issues and gets pneumonia every time she gets sick with a cough.
At this point I think I would rather her be able to go back and not come home for the school year than have to do remote learning. Of course that is easier said than done.
Or it may be the other way around. A good friend of mine works at a Boston-area BS and they have the open as day school only as one of the alternatives in their planning should local schools be allowed to open but the dorms are a no go. Between the day students and kids who board but live close enough that they could commute or live with family/friends nearby they would get a sizable portion of the student population on campus to start with and then they’d bring more as things open up. And should things tighten again they can simply switch to online only, not worrying about kids from far away being stuck on campus with nowhere to go. And of course if someone does get sick they stay home. This sort of hybrid model is on the table for colleges as well, with many variations. So it is not an either or question. Plus of course there is the dorms may open but due to distancing rules only single rooms are allowed so the capacity has to be halved alternative, with big decision of who should get the limited rooms if this is the situation you are in.
I think it will depend a lot on where your school is. I can tell you that in MA, the COVID situation is presently very bad and getting worse. But that will likely change in the next month.
To the folks that believe they can “shut down” a BS and create a closed campus, I don’t think that is possible. There are lots of staff who live on campus and many food staff and others who do not. The idea of having day students only might work ( but only for a school that has a large number of day students like Milton or CA) and even then, I think that’ pretty doubtful.
For kids who are healthy, things might be easier. Add in a kid with asthma or underlying condition and it becomes more difficult. Some schools have a lot of singles and others do not. But everything spreads through BS due to close proximity in class and at sporting events. Spoke to someone from our BS school admin the other day. The international students are up in the air. Many kids from China haven’t even made it back to Shanghai ( they are stuck, by choice or chance in Hong Kong).
Also, online BS learning varies. Some teachers took right to it. For others it’s more difficult depends on the teaching style, subject and the teacher. So it will be uneven. It’s not going to be as smooth as an online learning company but I think every school will do their best to make experience as easy as possible. I do think BS might open sooner than large pubic schools as they can social distance more easily ( minus the housing issue).
Despite these factors, all the kid who were applying this year that we know are still going.
One of the factors for more isolated schools is the local health care system. They can’t be the ones who gobble up local resources nor do they want to be the ones who infect their community. It’s all very uncertain.
Update from DA - an email was sent to students last evening informing them that their stuff will be packed up by a company and stored in the athletic complex. No picking up your stuff allowed - no coming to campus even if you live a couple hours away.
@Golfgr8 Really? With no option to ship the stuff to you even? Presumably they have to for the seniors, but also I’d assume there are a lot of kids who left most of their belongings on campus and don’t want to buy everything again. Particularly given the uncertainty over how long it will take before they are on campus again this seems odd. I really hope our school does not follow suit in this.
Hi @417WHB - my understanding is that there is an option to ship it to you and they will be shipping everything to the Seniors. For us, we don’t want it all shipped down here to the swamp because we would have to get it all back up north when school resumes. They do not want families coming to campus. Maybe this will change when things begin to open up later in MA, but right now it seems as if it’s a hot bed up in MA.
It feels safer to me to be in the dorm to get my kiddo’s stuff than going to the grocery store. Not sure why they couldn’t just let us make an appointment time and specific hours for each family per hallway or dorm over the next few months.
Update from Cate (mostly from zoom parent q&a last night). Kids sign up for 4 hour slots to pack up their rooms. We are going next week. Only 2 families per dorm at a time, 2 people per family. Lots of health screening before you are allowed on campus. Kids who can’t pack up will have a staff person do it for them. Some stuff goes to storage, some shipped. International Seniors will likely have their stuff shipped to their college.
They were very optimistic that school would open for fall with kids on campus, the question Is when. Various scenarios are being considered, from staring early to starting late, and possibly not sending kids home for Thanksgiving. They are even talking about sports happening, but probably not league games. They are developing plans for outdoor classes, repurposing space, and even bringing in trailers in case individuals need to be isolated. They even think they can work out the dorm issues, since there are a lot of singles to start with. They are concerned about international travel complications, so want to give families lead time to plan. They are also planning assuming there may be another wave in the fall to contend with.
All that said, they are only moving forward if they can be safe and the local government is on board. I was shocked, but pleasantly, at how optimistic they were. Too many details to repeat, and everything was framed as keeping as many options open as possible for as long as possible. They will start paring down options in June. But they are definitely planning as if students will be on campus in the fall.
With all this talk of having others pack up belongings, I wonder if some students have contraband in their rooms. 
Our options were come to campus to clean out room when CT gives the go ahead, have stuff shipped or have stuff stored til next year. I was really contemplating how easy it would be to move in next year if they just stored everything, but knowing how dirty all his dress clothes are (formal dress) and wondering if they will even fit next year made the decision to pick up the best option.
Oh I would bet money there is! And that no one wants anything to be discovered -admin and kids alike. I am guessing the school is going to find a way to pack rooms with their eyes closed.
Hotchkiss has said if kids tell them ahead of time about any contraband there will be no penalty, and the school will dispose of it. If the kid doesn’t tell the school and the school discovers it, the student will be kicked out (it is a no chance school).
Yes @cinnamon1212 - same…also wonder what they will find! Someone has/had a fish tank down the hall…SO wishing we could pick up stuff.
I am more worried about the science experiments that grew from the mess left behind. DS’ room was in pretty bad shape but we were running late so outside of making him take out the trash I let it go. Roommate left later so possibly some clean up was done but doubtful. If nobody has been in since all bets are off.
As for contraband, I would expect the company packing stuff to be told to just pack everything. Not something anyone wants to deal with right now.
Anyway, this thread made me inquire with DS and it seems like there are only a couple things he’d like to have, so we will survive either way. Here being a giant slob worked to his favor as no laundry was done for a good while before break so we brought it all home. Plus the sports stuff since there was supposed to be a spring training trip. But as someone else said, all the bedding, towels and any remaining clothing needs to be washed/cleaned up, if you just pack it up the stench upon opening will be something for sure.
But we too are waiting for the stay home order to be lifted which may not happen till June at this rate so who knows what will happen.
For those attending schools in MA, it’s still bad here ( and not getting better, haven’t really hit the top of the curve). And NH just started to pick up recently.
SMS sent an email Tuesday that we had until today to decide if we would pack up our own room or have the storage company do so. They said they would allow local families to pack up others’ rooms and store it if they’d be willing. DS is supposed to have an appointment with Boston Children’s mid_June, a week after the pick up cutoff day. So, he asked his two local friends if they’d be willing to haul his stuff to their house for a few weeks until we get there and he asked the school if he could have a time extension to pick up his belongings. We haven’t heard back from anyone.
He probably has grown contraband from the fermented juices and/or foods left in his room. When he left, he thought he’d be gone 10 days. He only packed 6 days of clothes because he was planning on washing during spring break. He also has a pretty expensive gravel bike he was training with in his room that he doesn’t want a moving company packing up.
This is when being distant can be frustrating.
“Closing” off a BS would be possible but as I stated in my original post it would require major changes to how things used to be done. I failed to note my comment was in regards to schools that are 100% boarding.
A lot of the comments in response were in the “that’s not how we have done it before” thought process. Bottom line for schools to open this fall with students on campus students/faculty/staff and parents will have to be able to accept dramatic change. My company has 6500 associates across the US and we deliver products to a variety of companies in various industries…some have made adjustments successfully (zero cases) and some have failed making those adjustments resulting in locations closing. BS will have to break out of the thought process of “that’s not how we have done it before” to be successful but it can be done and I say that not as a I’m right but to point out “normal” has to be dramatically redefined for BS (and companies for that fact) to operate safely going forward.
@D1swim2kidshoop i agree to an extent with what you’re saying. But many of these BS’s HAVE done this before. About 100 years ago. And many of them were successful.
I fear that society thinks we can just hide until it all goes away. And that’s not possible. Even with the production and administration of a vaccine, keeping everything closed and everyone separated will not conquer the virus. So, we cannot expect that if we shut down for a year or even two, administer vaccines and produce an antiviral drug that all risk will gone.
The answer is as you’ve said…making appropriate adjustments so as to minimize the risk as best possible and do the best we can. The boarding schools talked about on this forum have done this before. They’ll figure out a way to do it again. Whether or not you choose to send your child back when they open, that’s only a choice a parent can make.
On a semi-related note…do you all remember that flu outbreak at many of the boarding schools a few months ago - in February? There were some posts about it on here…some parents we know (on CC and off) received calls from their respective school health centers to say “Come pick up your child, we have no room left in the health center”. We know parents who live within a couple of hours of their schools and they were asked to come get their kids.
One concern is the ability for schools and local hospitals to handle an outbreak among students.
While we are on this topic…has anyone received information from schools @ safety/health plans for the Fall regarding changes in dorm room set-ups, dining hall services, food service travel issues?