Covid and Fall Enrollment at BS

Prep School Admissions Prep School Parents
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@DroidsLookingFor That article is behind a paywall. Here is six months data from NYT where the article title was about 6 months of covid
“Published May 15, 2020
Updated June 1, 2020
SEATTLE — In a county north of Seattle, two people who came down with respiratory illnesses in December now have antibodies for the coronavirus. In Florida, a public health official who got sick in January believes he had Covid-19.

And in California, a surprising discovery that an early-February death in San Jose was linked to the coronavirus has triggered a broader search for how that person was exposed.“

I believe the first case in Boston was a student from Wuhan which was reported 2/1. That’s 4 months and there were cases on the West Coast 6 weeks earlier. Some reports even believe the virus was circulating in NYC and CA in December but it was a later “wave” which spread. Some good sources from the medical journal statnews.com reports first case was Seattle 1/20.

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@Happytimes2001 I was referring to the start of the WFH/SIP orders which pretty much everywhere started in early/mid March, 3 months ago. You wrote:

“But it does seem like it will be tough to keep schools shut down forever. It’s been six months. People are ready to get back to their lives.”

In that context, it’s been 3 months since schools shut down and people were unable to get on with their lives.

On the BG piece, I wish there were I way I could just share a screen shot. The current chart goes back to May and shows a daily count of hospitals using ICU surge capacity (i.e. operating at >100% of regular ICU bed capacity). It was 21 hospitals on May 1 and is 6 today (up from 4 yesterday). The high was 26 in late April.

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@DroidsLookingFor I believe you. I have a background in data s I usually use the first data point, 1st case in the US hence the six months. Actually, I would have gone back to December if they could find a clear case for patient zero.
I believe you re: regular ICU beds. But again, here I would count capacity as set up for Covid rather than normal beds. They knew it was coming so had added to capacity in a huge way. The idea of not having enough hospital beds was a scary one a couple of months ago and IMHO, the impetus for the SIP.
Semantics.

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Part time lurker here! Thanks for posting all the helpful information. You’ve certainly given me some ideas for questions to submit ahead of my kid’s BS zoom call next week regarding the hopeful return to campus in the fall.

Just thought I’d share the good news from the “hot spot” of NJ that the spike we were warned about after Memorial Day (people packed on beaches!) hasn’t come to pass. Our numbers keep going down in almost - if not all - measured data points.

@DroidsLookingFor I’m having trouble finding the stats you’re providing, but I found the MA covid dashboard information promising:

https://www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-dashboard-june-3-2020/download

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@Cj9623 In MA, the numbers are really promising especially if you consider the county where many of the BS’s are located. Have been decreasing rapidly over the last three weeks.
You can look at the County your BS is located in and see how the numbers are broken out by town/city. Heck, you can even look at the town the BS is in. In MA, there have been some towns hit really hard ( like NJ and NYC) and others with barely or no cases. People in MA are following this closely and many are shopping in a specific town r not based on case numbers.

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There is an update from the MA Governor. Here is the link!

https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/06/05/massachusetts-coronavirus-update-friday-june-5

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Here’s the MA dept of ed guidelines. My guess is that even if BS are not legally required to follow these (they may be, I just don’t know the answer) they likely will, or will try to.

https://boston.cbslocal.com/2020/06/08/massachusetts-schools-fall-reopening-guidance-safety-masks-class-size/?fbclid=IwAR3q6Miu4YnfrHgaewRniUKpPa54UbXJENuS7XNahiOO6Ut7ERu9a2oNDQs

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@cj9623 yes a lot of data overlap with the page on The Boston Globe:

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/10/nation/latest-coronavirus-numbers-massachusetts/

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Thanks for sharing this information. Do you know if private schools need to abide by these recommendations for class size?

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We are in CT not MA but have been told that for liability reasons the school does need to follow the state recommendations whether required or not. It is impossible to find an insurer who would take a chance and provide liability insurance otherwise.

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@Golfgr8 two people in the MA school system (admin types) told me yes. But take it with a grain of salt until we get definitive word.

That said, as @417WHB said, I would be surprised if any BS tried anything meaningfully different (i.e. more relaxed) even if not legally required to follow the guidelines.

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We had a zoom meeting tonight to lay out the plans to reopen in the Fall. I’ll try to highlight things that I found to be important. I suspect most BS will be making similar adjustments. Obviously a lot depends on how things transpire in the next few months, but they will give us a more definite plan in early July (before tuition is due):

Following guidelines set by govt, other boarding schools and nearby colleges.

Starting date to remain the same, or possibly a week later.

Limited and/or staggered drop off. No on site parent orientation.

Mobile units to be used as additional infirmary rooms as needed.

Limiting class size to 7-8 students.

Replacing all plumbing fixtures with touchless technology (faucets / toilets).

Touchless hand sanitation stations.

Masks required in classrooms.

Virtual class participation for students who are quarantined or unable to be in class.

Staggered lunches as well as “grab n go” options so students can eat outdoors.

Eliminating double rooms as much as possible, even having some boarding students stay with day families or faculty families (I assume this requires the student has his/her own room).

Increase filtration for air handlers.

Virtual parents weekend :frowning:

Possibility of ending the first trimester at Thanksgiving break and not bringing students back until January. No mention of virtual schooling during this extended break.

Requesting (but not requiring) students and their families self quarantine before coming to campus.

Symptom tracking and frequent testing done on site so as not to put a strain on local resources.

Limits on off campus activity.

Common room activities / congregating moved to larger (preferably outdoor) spaces.

Part of me is thrilled there is a good chance school will be on campus in the Fall and part of me is sad to see the reality of what school will look like with all of these changes. I think returning students will adjust perfectly well, but I worry about new students (my daughter included).

In terms of athletics and extra curricular activities, they hope to be able to have them, but it’s too early to say definitively.

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I have heard informally that my son’s school is converting to all singles, and that they will not allow day students. Also that they are overenrolled.

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Really good recap, @cityran!

As the parent of a winter athlete, I am very concerned about the “extended winter break”. That means that there’s a good chance that winter sports won’t begin until after the new year!

Since Lville is a part of the Eight Schools Association, I imagine they will be coordinating these decisions together.

I’m trying to remain positive, considering that just a month ago, I wouldn’t have been sure they’d be welcoming students back to campus at all.

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@cj9623

I think the really good news is that the schools are trying to make decisions as late as possible, especially when it comes to the extended winter break. I keep hoping that the Covid information we get in the next three months will be good news and will allow for more leniency when it comes to school planning. I dont expect the Fall term to look “normal”, but hopefully things will start to go back to normal after that. Though I am an eternal optimist. :smiley:

And yes, Headmaster Murray mentioned that the Eight School Association is collaborating on this. I suspect those 8 schools will apply the same protocols and will all “look” very similar Fall term.

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@cj9623

I just realized you may be a Lawrenceville parent too???

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You two above me have it lucky - your kids got to play this year!

FWIW, we know 2 boys (class of 2020 from different LPS) who are switching gears and going to PG programs now instead of to college for football and hockey. I am hearing that PG spots filled up quickly!

Does anyone have any news @ housing changes for next year at different BS’s? Anyone hearing if that student limit in the classroom will apply to private schools?

One thing I will bet a martini on is this: Even in the midst of this uncertainty, we can bet on getting questions or posts about laundry service come Fall ?!

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@Golfgr8 My heart breaks for kids like yours! I apologize if my comment came off as insensitive. In a lot of ways, winter athletes are indeed lucky, considering fall athletes may be next to not have a season, but praying that’s not the case.

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Our school has done housing assignments already and most kids are in doubles as usual, I don’t think they could put everyone in singles without sending a ton of kids packing even if they wanted to, there is just not enough dorm space. And even the few singles that exist all use community bathrooms, so I don’t see the point.

As for sports, we too got a bunch of PGs and also juniors re-classing (repeating junior year) for sports. I do wonder how many of them will actually come if sports do not resume in the fall. Given the current state of the affairs fall football season in particular does not seem particularly likely. We heard rumblings that fall may be intramural sports only with maybe a couple games against nearby schools if things go well. And if the planned break between Thanksgiving and New Years’ come to fruition I am not sure what happens with winter sports either. If you don’t start practicing till January how much of a season can you have? Lots of questions that need to be answered before people truly commit at the end of the month.

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Strong rumor for Fall 2020, one of the HADES is only allowing half the students on campus at any time. All classes online, even for students on campus. All dorm rooms will be singles. Students must stay with the same small group of 10.