Opening Plan at a Glance

As we reopen George School, our main goals will be to maintain the bonds of our community and our commitment to academics in the safest way possible, while remaining flexible in the face of unpredictable circumstances. It is important to the development of adolescents that they spend time with their peers and bringing students back to campus is therefore a priority.

George School needs to continue to offer the best academic experience we can for students who are studying with us from around the country and around the world. We also will continue to build our Friends community through regular meetings for worship, assemblies, and service, while taking the necessary precautions.

Despite this commitment to continuing to learn and grow together on campus, we will need to acknowledge that the school’s social and academic life will differ in significant ways from what it has been in the past. While there are no absolute guarantees of safety from COVID-19, we will take the steps we can to limit its spread, and this will entail significant changes in how we interact. It will also require our students, faculty, and staff to be adaptive and resilient in our work this coming year. We need a plan to reopen school that allows us to pivot when unforeseeable changes arise in order to ensure that we can move forward as a community in a safe and responsible fashion.

THE HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PLAN TO REOPEN ARE AS FOLLOWS:

• We will adopt a red-orange-yellow-green colorcoded system for running the school. The phase we are in will be determined by factors including: the infection rate in the region around George

School; infections on campus or among community members; the capacity of the Student Health and

Wellness Center to isolate and monitor students who have tested positive for COVID-19 or who have been exposed to it; guidance from the CDC, and state and local health officials.

• As of August 5, and under present conditions,

George School plans to open in the yellow phase.

Like all schools we will continue to evaluate conditions around the school and on campus to ensure

we open in a phase that responds to our environment and the need to protect the health of our community to the greatest possible extent.

• Day and boarding students will be welcome on campus in the fall.

• Everyone on campus will be required to wear face coverings, practice physical distancing, observe high standards for hygiene, and monitor and report their health daily.

• The academic blocks in the morning will be online for all students. Afternoon offerings will be held in person and on campus. Activities planned for midday are hybrid and include meeting for worship, collection, gatherings, and lunch.

• On campus, students can work on labs or arts assignments, or participate in service, physical education, or sports. They can work with teachers and other students on their lessons—as a supplement to the online instructional program. There will be in-person opportunities to clarify and expand on what has been delivered online, and to meet IB and other requirements.

• Families have a distance learning option where students do all activities remotely, for those who are studying abroad or are not able to come to campus physically.

• Boarders and day students will be assigned to separate cohorts and will have very limited interaction.

That includes during time with their teachers in person. The goal is to limit the spread of infection.

• Day students are welcome on campus from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on weekdays. Each day student who chooses the on-campus option will be assigned a home base on campus with others in their grade. Day students should bring headphones that work with their computer to use while joining online classes.

• Day students will remain off campus outside of the academic day. The George School Meetinghouse and the Fitness and Athletics Center will be open for early drop off and late pickup.

• Boarders may not leave campus, except in special previously arranged circumstances.

• Boarders who are unable to return home or who are unable to continue school remotely from home will be allowed to stay on campus when campus is closed. George School encourages families of boarding students to secure a local guardian.

• Meeting for worship and assemblies are essential to the health and identity of the school community and will be hybrid, in person and online for students who are studying around the world or who are taking the all-online option.

• Athletics preseason is canceled. Mindful of the guidance provided by Pennsylvania, we are working with the Friends Schools League to develop a sports plan that is right for George School. We do know that the fall season will not be a normal season, and updates will be shared with you as soon as the FSL has made its decision.

• Students who have tested positive for COVID-19, or who have been directly exposed to someone with

COVID-19, will go home and remain with family or guardians until the end of an isolation period.

Those boarders who cannot do so will be observed and cared for in designated isolation spaces on campus by staff at the Student Health and Wellness

Center.

• George School has ordered COVID-19 test kits, and we have been informed that they were diverted to nursing homes and healthcare facilities. We have been told that we can expect to receive test kits sometime between November and February. We will develop protocols for use of these tests when they become available. In the meantime, COVID-19 tests are available in Bucks County with a doctor’s prescription, and in some adjacent counties without a prescription. Students will have access to those when needed.