Closing the Distance: A Safe and Sounder Return to Campus

By Brianna St. John

In March of 2020, Choate closed its doors in response to the COVID-19 crisis, moving to online learning. As cases in Connecticut declined over the summer, the long-held hope for a return to campus began to take shape, bringing with it critical questions: was it possible to reopen the School for the fall term? And even more important: how could a residential boarding school open safely in the midst of a pandemic? It would take seven months of careful planning, thoughtful work, and community-wide collaboration before Choate saw the answers manifest.

Masked and distanced students return to their dorms, where new COVID-19 protocols are in place.

EDUCATION FIRST

A return to campus both started and ended with the idea of togetherness: in order to live, work, and learn together, the pieces of the Choate community had to reassemble in spirit and intention before returning to Wallingford. The idea of a homecoming could only succeed with the dedication of the entire community, where each individual would be called upon to adopt new behaviors and protocols to protect the health and safety of their peers.

This presented two critical starting points for a potential reopening: a comprehensive education plan, and the knowledge that a reunion would only become a reality if every student, staff member, and faculty member showed their support through demonstrated action. The merger of these ideas began with a Community Compact, a pledge for each individual to do their part to adopt recommended behaviors in order to minimize the risk of COVID-19 on campus. The compact begins, “All of us in the Choate Rosemary Hall community have a shared responsibility, as we continue to navigate these challenging and unprecedented times, to contribute to campus life in a way that will promote the health and safety of all community members.”

All students received care kits with fabric masks, gaiters, and hand sanitizer.

The desire to reunite without jeopardizing well-being gave rise to the Safe + Sounder health campaign. Launched in August and named for the School’s mascot, the Wild Boar, a group of which is called a sounder, the campaign laid out the building blocks of individual actions that would assemble into a successful reopening – proper masking and physical distancing would need to be common practice at home before a return to Wallingford became possible; handwashing guidelines would need to be followed; the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 needed to be thoroughly understood.

With these building blocks in place, the 3 W’s (Wear Your Mask, Watch Your Distance, and Wash Your Hands) became the guiding principles of the campaign. These principles were supported by training modules released over the summer (detailing granular healthcare basics like proper handwashing and mask-wearing etiquette), and extensive signage around campus (serving as helpful reminders of what six feet of distance looks like and detailing newly adopted cleaning procedures, which include wiping down shared surfaces and increased deep-cleans in all shared spaces). It also led community members through the process of quarantining at home, limiting contact to family members in preparation for returning to campus.

Educational videos set expectations of what life would look like back on campus. Demonstrations of six feet of distance and etiquette for proper masking, handwashing and distancing were required viewing for the community.

And even apart, Choate’s senses of integrity and enthusiasm shone bright. Students, staff, and faculty did the work: they committed to this new normal, downloading apps, watching tutorials, and limiting contact to get ready. Choate strove toward a common goal: maintaining health and safety at home so the community could reunite.

With the education component in full swing, Choate Rosemary Hall welcomed boarding students back to campus on September 30 for quarantine. At Registration, masked and distanced students were tested, asked to download their symptom tracking app, and given care kits with fabric masks, gaiters, and hand sanitizer. Upperclassmen, not parents and guardians, helped new and returning students move into their dorms. Boarding students – newly introduced to their family pods – and day students – still at home for the time being – learned remotely, but together. After a summer of preparation, the community was beginning to reshape.

A student arrives for Registration and COVID testing on September 30.

Equipped with phone apps that allow for symptom tracking, the School implemented daily wellness checks, which allow the community to stay informed and proactive of illness on campus.

SAFETY THROUGH TESTING

Next came the task of maintaining health and safety through the period of quarantine. A successful return was grounded in the education campaign, but it could only be fully achieved with a carefully structured campus-wide testing regimen.

For students, this began at home. Before group quarantine began, test kits were mailed off-campus, ensuring that people coming back were healthy enough to do so. Once kids arrived for Registration, they were tested again by members of the Pratt Health Center, to ensure that the students, parents, faculty, and student-facing staff alike were well.

The commitment to the health of the community continues with weekly testing for students, faculty, and student-facing staff on campus. Equipped with phone apps that allow for symptom tracking, the School implemented daily wellness checks, which allow the community to stay informed and proactive of illness on campus. The heart of the Safe + Sounder campaign was moved online, providing FAQs to guide individuals through every step of the reopening process, and a dashboard, updated daily, reflecting the number of tests administered and the number of positive results. This transparency of data grants the community real-time access to updates about illness on campus.

Testing, adherence to the 3 W’s, and a culture of care are vital to keeping friends, classmates, and coworkers on campus.

While testing certainly plays a major role in monitoring for COVID-19, it was also clear that a culture of care needed to take root. Widespread testing would detect the virus, but individual action was vital to containing it. Care for the greater community became (and continues to be) just as crucial as the act of testing, itself. This meant finding ways to allow students and faculty alike to remain out of the classroom if they felt ill, without cutting them off from the newly re-formed sense of community.

But how could the School bridge the gap between the necessity of physical distance and the joy of shared experiences? Having made an impressive pivot to online learning in March, and now with several months of brainstorming, feedback, and reconfiguring to draw upon, Choate turned back to technology for an answer.

THOUGHTFUL APPROACHES

Careful consideration was given to new approaches in nearly every area of learning. Implementation began in the classroom. While students and faculty underwent their summer training, staff and on-campus facilities crews set about rethinking and restructuring learning spaces.

All classrooms were measured and furniture was adjusted to allow for appropriate physical distance between students and between students and teachers. iPads, Zoom Rooms, and Virtual Student technology gave students on campus and those participating remotely the opportunity to learn synchronously. (Learn more about Virtual Student technology on pg. 5.) All students were provided iPads and smartphones to ensure that classroom access was consistent across the student body. In short, while technology had become a symbol of distance for so many months, it was now the gateway to keeping classes, advisees, departments, and friends together.

In October 2020, Academic Technologist Kelsey Wiegert presented at Zoomtopia, the international Zoom user conference. Wiegert spoke to over 2,000 attendees about blended classrooms making use of in-person learning and remote resources.

To accommodate as many students as possible, the School also developed a new academic daily schedule to support learners in all time zones. With some students learning remotely for the entire year, and to support students in their decision to remain out of the classroom when feeling unwell, Choate faculty committed to teaching during waking hours in Wallingford. The dedication to finding shared time together, even when physically apart, worked to close the gap between an online experience and a communal one.

iPads, Zoom Rooms, and Virtual Student devices gave students on campus and those participating remotely the opportunity to learn synchronously.

Arts and athletics in particular underwent significant restructuring. Arts began with digital ensembles, implementing a phased-in approach to gradually move to distanced and masked ensembles once it was determined safe to do so. Performances, music lessons, and theater courses and rehearsals met virtually, keeping students engaged while minimizing health and safety risks.

For athletics, indoor spaces were equipped for 12 feet of distance, while outdoor practices were still held at 6 feet. New intramural offerings like ping pong, pickleball, yoga, and Frisbee golf were incorporated into the schedule, promoting physical activity that still adhered to physical distancing requirements.

Boarding students met their family pods, giving them a homelike environment in which to relax.

With these new protocols in place, the academics and arts alike were restructured to allow the health and safety of the individuals on campus to take precedence without sacrificing the feeling that the community had come home.

COLLABORATION MAKES A COMMUNITY

After faculty, staff, and students committed their summers to learning and preparing, their dedication came to fruition: on October 12, boarding students emerged from quarantine and day students joined them for on-campus learning.

It would not have been possible without the widespread care and support from the entire Choate community. The exchange of ideas and a willingness to adapt, to try, and to start again gave rise to the successes marked across campus. None of them would have been possible without collaboration and creativity from every corner of the School. In being willing to face the challenges of returning, to think through solutions that would ripple through every classroom and department, the community came together to prove that while the spirit of Choate extends far beyond the boundaries of campus, there is an incredible sense of peace when we are together.

Brianna St. John is the Bulletin Features Editor and Communications Office Coordinator at Choate Rosemary Hall.