Funny, I hadn’t thought about how these issues get down to the granular level of classroom doors. But of course they do. @CaliMex, the Cate science building has internal hallways, but all the rest have external doors, iirc. Most have 2+ doors. Many are really small – just enough for the table and 12-ish kids without social distancing. So that’s a problem. But lots of classes already go outside, so that isn’t a huge obstacle.
I would feel much better with a testing protocol as @vwlizard described, and hope that the tests are reliable and economical. It would stink to be a day student and go through testing every morning, but it is do-able. Kiddo was saying that students already have a self-reporting obligation if they aren’t feeling well, but kids rarely report because they are stressed about missing class. You can’t rely on kids to self-report.
I am trying to envision how the changes described would be employed at Cate. I don’t see how you can limit the kids to families of 40-50, when so many have classes with upper/lower grades. Eg advanced math classes can be a mix of three grades – and there are maybe two sections total. And then they all scatter to different language classes. And those poor kids with significant others! Heaven help the staff if they try to separate them – especially since they haven’t been together since February.
Ugh – move in day. Hadn’t thought about that, either. It would have to be staggered. Pre-covid there was a natural staggering because football etc came early, then each class has their own assigned day with freshmen reporting last. I can see staggering the freshmen – that day is utter chaos (filled with sweet traditions that probably can’t happen now). But there just aren’t enough days to stagger everyone (there are just 7 dorms). Maybe you give each family a two hour window to get stuff into the room, and only have one family per floor at a time? The return students will have their stuff stored on campus already, so that’s no big deal.
Cate has been building a new dining hall/student center for ever – it was supposed to open last fall, then fall parents weekend, then January, then spring parents weekend… It is going to finally be open this fall, and supposedly fortuitously designed to be flexible in how food is delivered. It is also large enough to provide ample spacing and outdoor eating. If it weren’t for that, meals would be a huge problem. And there is an added bonus that the old dining hall is now empty – so it can be repurposed. They were going to immediately start remodeling work for a new super cool library, but those plans are on hold in order to accommodate Covid changes.
I worry about the teachers. Not only for the health reasons, but this is a lot to manage.
I like the red/yellow/green days. Makes total sense.
ETA – I can’t find anything about whether the higher ed rules apply to boarding schools. Regular schools in Cal will be opening “with restrictions” in phase 2, but higher ed is phase 3. Cal State schools are all virtual in the fall, what the UCs are doing isn’t clear. A tiny isolated boarding school is nothing like a UC campus. It shouldn’t have to follow those guidelines. It is safer than a public high school is, so it should be able to open when public high schools do.