OP, since you asked about specific schools, I will give you my feedback on how Mercersburg has handled COVID and the return to campus this year. From the beginning (all the way back to last spring), the school has been very transparent about their thoughts and processes moving forward. Throughout the summer they kept parents informed and laid out plans for on-campus return, while also being honest that things could change based on local conditions or government directives. This past fall, they offered every student the option to be either fully online or on campus - there were no restrictions on who could study fully online. (I say this because there are schools who limited their virtual classes to international students only.) Not only that, but students could choose on a term by term basis whether they wanted to be on campus or be virtual. So if you decided to be online for the fall, you did not have to commit to online for the other 2 terms, which was nice. Day students were given an option to live on campus in the fall, and many of them took that opportunity. We chose to have our son on campus in the fall, and it was a successful (albeit different) semester for him and all of his friends. Being in their third year there, he and his friends were acutely aware of the traditions and activities that they missed out on in the fall. Thankfully his group of friends tend to be good natured and flexible, so they rolled with the new routine and just made the best of it. It was enough of a positive experience that he hoped to return for the winter term in January, as the school had originally planned.
Mercersburg had originally scheduled their return to campus on January 11th, but due to the surge in cases across the country and in the rural Franklin county, they pushed back the return date to March 6th/7th. This decision was made in mid-December, to give parents time to adjust travel plans. Right now we are in the middle of the online winter term, and their 2 week spring break starts this Friday afternoon. When they return in March, they will go through the same process as fall - pre-arrival COVID test, arrival day COVID test, quarantine and then one more test 5 days after, then finally they will be released to in-person instruction. They will stay there for 13 weeks straight to finish out the Winter and Spring terms, and they’re all done by June 4th, which is a little later than a normal year, I think.
Mercersburg moved to the block schedule this year, as many schools did, to ease the burden of class scheduling during these times. I think its safe to say the jury is still out on whether they will be using the block schedule again, or maybe using some kind of modified block schedule next year. My son ended up having an honors math course and AP Chem course in the fall term, all in 9 weeks, and that was a challenge. We didn’t feel like he fully absorbed all the Chem, and I think there were topics that were missed all together. His next math course will not be until next year, so that is a lot of time to put between math courses. I will be interested to hear what they are going to do with the schedule next year.
Overall, I have felt that the administration has made thoughtful, research based decisions, and communicated those well to parents. Our HOS is transparent and accessible - she personally answered an email I sent last summer regarding day students on campus. Personally, I feel like some of the decisions could have been made differently (for example, I would have preferred the return that St Marks did this winter - return late January, cut spring break all together, stay on campus and end early for the year). But, they made the decisions they thought were best given the information and circumstances that were presented to them. My son is excited to return on March 6th, and it sounds like the school has put a lot of thought into student activities and student life in general to make the spring a positive experience. There is certainly no lack of effort on their part, and I genuinely appreciate all they have done to get our kids back on campus and keep the community safe during uncertain times.