Following subsequent tests with negative results, Mercersburg has moved to its next phase. Kids are out of in-room quarantine, which means classes and sports practices/activities started in person (with masks and SD) Friday, kids can pick up food in the dining hall (in shifts) and eat outside or in their rooms (much better - can pick what they want, it’s hot, etc), and there are some activities like SD outdoor movies and bonfires. WHen not in class, getting food or at your sport/activitity, you must be in your room, but there is more scheduled outdoor time (two 2-hour blocks). Kids in dorms can go to other rooms on their floor (only; known as their “circle”) but must maintain SD and limits on # of people in a room at once. We are on a block schedule for the time being, so that means 2 classes per term, which helps with SD and de-densification in the classroom buildings. They are not allowed to leave campus to go into town. This is for the kids’ protection but also to assuage fears in the small local commmunity of “kids coming from all over the world” and possibly spreading the virus. The outside time is being called “recess” and I’ve heard from both my kid but also from faculty that the kids are truly PLAYING when they go outside. No phones, just kids being silly and having fun. That’s nice to hear. And hammocking, with 1 person per…
A large number of our international students are learning online, as are a few boarders and day students. Many day students also opted to board this year; most of the rest of non-boarding day students are faculty kids. No outside sports allowed.
One of our kids played the Hotchkiss course this weekend. Beautiful New England fall weekend, as one could see watching the U.S. Open at Winged Foot. Crisp and clear.
Forman is encouraging kids to be out of their rooms as much as possible. Your dorm is your family and you can freely mingle and not wear a face mask in the dorm (everyone has been tested multiple time, the campus is locked down and there have been no positives on campus or in town). They have various outside entertainment areas set up (movie theater, pub, fire pit, game room., etc.) They just need to be wearing masks and social distancing.
Classes have all been in person
Meals are grab and go with small groups going in at a time to “grab”. MEals for the most part are outside, but there are areas where you can sit with your dorm inside if you want.
Dorms are on the smaller side, so bathroom use isn’t a problem.
Sports are basically socially distanced conditioning and skills at this time.
One dorm was quarantined for 48 hours when some kids had cold symptoms. They were all tested and results were all negative. The school was fairly certain it was just a cold, but also wanted to try to contain it as if the whole school had cold symptoms, it would be hard to monitor cold vs. covid symptoms.
Because they have met the criteria to move up (down?) one “threat” level, parents were allowed to come to campus this weekend for a one hour, not allowed in any building, socially distanced from everyone but your kid visit. Next week, assuming things progress as they have been, kids will be allowed to go into town to the grocery store and pharmacy.
DS and his schoolmates have to quarantine off campus for 2 weeks. The school blocked off a hotel and placed faculty there to supervise. This was an option. I’ve heard they are being very strict with those kids/families and have had the hotel provide the food, etc.
The other option was to quarantine with a family that lived within driving distance (except RI). So, DS was fortunate to do this with a family right in Southborough. They’ve stayed within their family unit but the boys have run together on the school’s XC trails for workouts. Several other classmates from CA rented a condo for the two weeks. Everyone is on the honor system.
All students have to have a negative test result within 7 days of this weekend’s move-in date (DSs came back yesterday). Day students are tested at the school tomorrow. Boarding testing is done at their move-in and then must isolate in their rooms until they are resulted. Turn around time for the tests is about 24 hours. They’ll be let out of rooms then. Another test will be done the following week for all students. After that, tests will be done according to situations that arise.
Once the students are let out of their dorm rooms, restrictions will be masks at all times (they were required to bring at least 7 -DS took 14), eating in “blocks” to allow for cleaning of facilities between each group, one-way hallways, etc.They do have outdoor mask-free areas that will be accessible to each block at certain times.
Other than the daily temperature checks, occasional testing, change in eating schedule/arrangement, and masks, it really doesn’t seem too restrictive. DS used to spend 24 hours in his dorm on weekends anyway, only leaving for dinner. Now they’ll bring food to him? He’s probably going to be in heaven. ?
The down side to the self-quarantines is the inconvenience. We got very lucky. Many families did open their homes, but for those that were new or couldn’t take advantage of local families offers, it wasn’t easy to live in a hotel for 2 weeks. That said, I think it was probably more comfortable and mentally appealing than being cooped up in a dorm.
SPS is in the “Yellow” Zone. Kids are allowed to gather in each other’s rooms, wearing masks (max occupancy of a single is 3, double is 4) and with doors open. The weight and cardio room is open, by appt with capacity limited. Trails and fields are open.
They had a number of fun outdoor activities planned for last weekend. Clubs have begun to meet and sports are in process (with some limitations.) They did another set of tests last week and everyone is still negative. They are lucky because NH and the Concord area has very low virus levels. It seems very likely that they will make it to Thanksgiving without issue.
SPS also just announced that they are changing the calendar pretty dramatically. Kids will leave 11/21 and not return until 1/21 or so. March break is eliminated and the term will end in May rather than June. Graduation will also be in May. This is kind of sad since it stays cold in NH for so long - its already cold there - so senior’s ability to socialize and enjoy their senior spring will really be minimal.
@HMom16 - did SPS give you an idea of what they will have for programming (if any) or a special “X”term of options for seminars, courses, independent study between 11/21-1/21? Does your Fall term end 11/21? We hear our school will be offering things, but no specifics yet.
Is it assumed that the ban on club sports at your kids’ school will continue into spring term and will you remain in school if it does?
If this happens my son will need to choose again (this semester he chose school). If he doesn’t play spring club sports he will have virtually no chance of playing in college. If he doesn’t go to school in person it will be psychologically incredibly painful. The choice is basically “which arm would you like us to cut off - your right or your left?”
Wow, the SPS new schedule is a carbon copy of what a lot of colleges have done to their schedules. It pretty much kills any chance for winter sports in Founders’ league, and we were told not long ago that they still very much hoped for a shortened season January-March.
What is the ‘X’ term, do some schools have special term for the time kids are home in winter? We have trimesters so that would not work, the plan as it stands now is to start winter term at home after Thanksgiving and finish it at school. But if they didn’t go back till late January the bulk of the term would be at home.
@one1ofeach as for the club sports ban in the spring I think my kid would be okay with it as long as they play regular boarding school season. But what are the odds of that happening? If they still have no sports and aren’t allowed to play outside either he will most likely be remote from home.
@417WHB right, the issue for us is that both soccer and basketball have their major club season in spring. schools are not going to replace spring competitive with soccer or basketabll so spring sports at school only helps baseball, lacrosse, tennis players (and whatever other spring sports)???
@one1ofeach is your son’s school doing anything to support recruiting? My son’s school (Hotchkiss) is having the team scrimmage and last I heard they are planning on videotaping many/most of their sessions so the kids would have current video to send coaches. There was talk of inviting area coaches to come watch some training sessions as well. And Hotchkiss is not known as a soccer powerhouse. Perhaps you could suggest something along those lines to your son’s coaches?
@Golfgr8@417WHB SPS is on a trimester schedule so they aren’t planning an X term. Fall term ends mid November, Winter term runs from then until March and then Spring term runs March through May. They will skip March break and end early, in May. In sum, Winter term will be partially online for everyone.
They are playing some football games this fall, and also have some lacrosse scrimmages set up. There may be other sports scheduled but those are the only ones I follow. I think winter sports will also take place, depending on the sport (e.g. Alpine skiing is likely but wrestling is probably not.) Games and scrimmages are not necessarily with league opponents as the school is limiting competition to NH based schools that are following similar “bubble” protocols.
Coaches are trying hard to work with seniors, filming whenever they can and reaching out to colleges, as appropriate.
Our school is doing 4 days of fall sports practices and an optional 2 days of spring practices to offset not being able to play club sports. They too have talked about video sessions and recruiting though I haven’t really paid attention since it’s not relevant to us. Out of 800 students, 60 have chosen to remain remote, all of which are athletes who did so to continue club sports.
Life on campus is still not what we expected. The required 14 day quarantine is now officially over, except the kids still aren’t allowed to move around as we thought they would at this point. They may leave their dorms only at specific times, and/or for a specific reason (to throw a box out in recycling for example), and they are not allowed to move around campus freely. They are also still not allowed to talk in dorm hallways or hang out in the common rooms. Citykid still feels like she’s in jail and wants to come home. We are getting a lot of videos from the school about how things will work, and with all of these restrictions in place, I’m worried there won’t be enough time before Thanksgiving break for her to learn to love the school. It’s like one step forward, two steps back with her. In-person classes start Thursday, so I’m hoping thats two giant steps forward!!! This is so much harder than we could have ever expected.
Dropped off kiddo on Thursday. It was super hard and weird because of the rules for me, and I have a deep comfort/familiarity with the school. I can’t imagine how hard it is for parents and students new to bs. My heart goes out to you.
We are in the first week of this quarantine stuff, and kiddo seems ok so far. But then he has a roommate, and if he can play video games, he can stay connected to all of his friends without leaving his room. Never thought I would be glad for video games.
I hope the school figures out how to get the first years connected to the community while they are so isolated. The homesickness has got to be fierce. ?
Has anyone else had to deal with the awkward “you sent your kid away” conversations more this year? I normally don’t mention bs to people, but parents are commiserating over distance learning, etc right now so schools are a constant topic. When it has come up before, I usually preemptively say it is so perfect for him, he loves it and we are grateful to find the match. That usually works. It is hard to argue with someone else’s happiness, even if you think it is insane.
But it isn’t so easy this year. People want to compare stress and misery and school failures. Which is fine, but it gets weird talking about testing, dorm quarantine, etc. When others are completely distance learning. It also can be incomprehensible for some that we are ok with him being away from home at all right now, trusting teens and strangers with kiddo’s health. The uncertainty brings the awkwardness to another level, maybe because how could anybody be 100% happy with any school option right now?
Interesting. I have been keeping my mouth very closed because I think our situation is so so so much better than any public school.
Back at school full time, excellent testing protocol. Comparison to LPS - 4 hours of in person instruction per week. I don’t, for one second, think that my kid going to school is unsafe. There is not a doubt in my mind about that.
I personally think the LPS, with no testing and kids having zero rules, is way way way more “unsafe” right now. And I say that without judgment - if my kid were in LPS I would also send them, without a backward glance.
**And I do not mean to debate safety in any way - safety and risk are personal decisions.
^ I agree that bs with the testing protocol is a far better and safer option. But that gets awkward, too. Boosts the “well aren’t you privileged, getting to send your kid to a bubble while the rest of us can’t”. It is a no win.
It comes up all the time for me, on the phone for work, people Politely checking in on how well the other’s family is, and how are they coping with the awful school situation. Even total strangers chit chat about it.
Ahhh, got it. I mostly talk to people who already know where my kid goes or who don’t care. I would probably say things like “it’s as good as can be expected in this time of total melt down” or things like that. Totally non commital. Or “I am grateful the kids seem ok right now.”
@CateCAParent I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that it’s a no win.
We’ve now gone through two rounds of it - first when taking our kids out of LPS after 7th grade, and again now BS (disclaimer: kids are day students). Seems that no matter what we say or how we say it, how much we make it about fit, the kids, whatever…people can’t hear any of it without deciding that we’re at least implicitly judging them (or their kids…) for not making the same decision.
I’m fortunately not in a situation like the one you describe with work calls, etc. so it helps to be able to hibernate somewhat. This place helps too!
I am certainly not judging the educational decisions of others nor ever bring it up. I have two kids currently in high school. One dealing with the boarding school bubble and the other with the hybrid-model LPS.
I would think that people would not be judgmental of our decisions because it is totally about fit. BS is better for one and LPS is better for the other. To each his own.
I agree with @CateCAParent that school situations are constantly being brought up. We can’t believe the comments we get! From those not familiar with boarding schools, it’s the how can you send your child away? From prep school families, it’s OMG isn’t your other kid getting a subpar education and unsafe from Covid at the public high school? From both groups it has been along the lines of how can you have separated them? I want to scream. They will be “separated”’when the older one goes to college, but no one would ever question that!
I also agree that it is definitely a no win situation!!!