PLANNING AND PIVOTING: Farmhouse & More COVID Preparedness

As we began to plan in the late spring to safely reopen school for 2020-2021, the list of updates, upgrades, and additions to facilities grew daily.

At the same time, we began to hire additional staff in critical areas – nurses in the Miller Brown Health Center and custodians for the physical plant. Planning early and strategically allowed Millbrook to expand housing, with the addition of a new 40-person dormitory, and to create a safe 12-bed quarantine facility adjacent to the health center for use as needed. These substantial investments put Millbrook in an enviable position, as other schools were simply too late or too large to be able to undertake similar initiatives. The following is a representative, not exhaustive, list of how Millbrook prepared to reopen school under the safest conditions possible.

• The new 20-room dorm, dubbed Farmhouse, sits on the north side of the farm with bucolic views of sunflowers, tomato vines, and pumpkin patches. Boys living in Farmhouse enjoy the largest rooms on campus, and the only ones with air-conditioning!

• The quarantine building has twelve beds that will allow us to safely house students in a temporary space should we need to separate and restrict the movement of any students potentially exposed to COVID-19 until they are able to leave campus.

• We created three new learning spaces in Schoolhouse by reclaiming offices and converting them to classrooms.

These new classrooms allow for smaller classes and can accommodate desks at least 6’ apart.

• We installed HEPA filters in every classroom and dorm lounge.

• We created an expansive outdoor dining area on the north patio of the dining hall. Students and faculty can eat at tables overlooking the farm that is producing some of what they are enjoying for lunch and dinner.

• We built several additional outdoor spaces around campus for classes, dorm meetings, advisory meetings, etc. All students were gifted a Millbrook folding chair, so teachers and students can meet in any of these new spaces or under any shady tree.

• Maintenance staff installed Plexiglass barriers in classrooms, offices, and vehicles, graphics on every exterior door as a reminder to wear a mask and keep socially distanced, and additional graphic reminders on handwashing best practices in every bathroom on campus.

• A 30% increase in custodial staff is allowing us to clean far more frequently and deeply.

• By increasing the number of nursing staff, we are able to keep our students and teachers healthy and safe and test and manage daily screenings efficiently.