St. Thomas's Day School Reopening Guide 2020-2021

REOPENING FALL 2020

HAPPY MINDS. OPEN HEARTS. BRAVE IDEAS.

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Introduction About Our Approach Guiding Principles The Important Role of Families Community Expectations Investments in Safety, Financial Aid and our Community COVID-19 Monitoring Plan Color Codes Health and Safety Measures Extracurricular, Experiential Learning and Auxiliary Programs Additional Considerations Accommodations and Support Pandemic Task Force School Safety Committee Additional Resources Questions

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introduction The emergence of the novel coronavirus pandemic in late 2019 and its global spread through early 2020 forced St. Thomas’s Day School, like other schools around the world, to revert to distance learning. Teachers, staff, students and parents have demonstrated extraordinary resilience in adapting to new and often challenging conditions at the end of the 2019-2020 school year. As health conditions improve in New Haven, and businesses and schools prepare to reopen, we look forward to once again welcoming students, faculty and staff back to our beloved school campus. We understand that this transition back to school may come with concerns and complexities, and we are committed to reorienting the children to the new school year in the safest and most supportive way possible. Our home-school connection grows in importance this year as we will require cooperation together as our constantly changing health landscape will demand flexibility throughout the year.

Important dates to know: Sept 1: K Orientation Gr. 1-6 New Student Visits Sept 2: Classes begin

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about our approach This plan represents the thoughtful work of the Pandemic Task Force. It is a plan that invests heavily in the critical levers of a safe return to campus, including a robust set of stringent health and safety measures. It is also a plan that is designed to allow the school to adapt to the chang-

the ideal teaching and learning environment is one in which students & teachers are able to interact face-to-face

ing conditions of the pandemic and still provide for the continuous education of our students.

At all times, we will continue to track infection and hospitalization rates, and monitor developments in public health policies and recommended practices.

While it is difficult to predict the ways in which our current health context might change in the future, one thing is constant – our steadfast commitment to the ongoing social, emotional, spiritual, and academic growth and development of our students. Our dedicated faculty and staff are putting forth their finest efforts to prepare for the new school year. We cannot wait to see the children again, and we look forward to a healthy, happy and successful year ahead.

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guiding principles

St. Thomas’s has defined four guiding principles that help to inform our decisions as we return to campus. These principles speak to our school mission and our school motto. They are also aligned with what we have learned from our experience with distance learning this spring and the feedback from our family surveys.

safety St. Thomas’s highest priority is the health and well-being of its community. We believe that a healthy and nurturing environment is necessary for students, teachers and staff to thrive. We also believe that we have an obligation to support the health and welfare of the broader community – from our families to those near and far. We will continue to monitor the CDC, state guidelines and public health conditions in New Haven as we align our measures of practice accordingly.

on-campus instruction St. Thomas’s recognizes that the optimal learning environment for children is one in which they are learning from their teachers and fellow students in-person.

Additionally, our school size and building footprint uniquely positions us to provide our students with an in-school learning experience. To the best of our ability, and following official health guidelines, all enrolled students will be invited to return to the school campus for an in-person education (specials classes included) five full days a week.

School hours are 8:00-3:00 Monday— Thursday and 8:00-2:00 on Friday.

academic coherence & excellence The culture of St. Thomas’s Day School affirms the whole child as an intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual being. Our balanced approach to learning, the pursuit of academic excellence and a continuous educational experience is vitally important.

While health circumstances may necessitate certain changes or restrictions to student life, our ultimate goal is to support our students’ learning and development as seamlessly as possible.

flexibility & adaptability St. Thomas’s recognizes that any plan that we design to respond to external health conditions must be flexible and able to adapt to circumstances beyond our control. Our overarching goal is to create a continuous learning experience that can adapt to possible future coronavirus infections while still allowing us to maintain as much on-campus instruction as possible.

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the important role of families

Families play a vital role in maintaining safety on campus. More than ever, the home-school connection will be vital to the success and well-being of our students. The number one safety measure is to keep children home if they are sick. St Thomas’s will continue to provide online education for the time in which they must stay at home.

We want to work with families to support their child’s adherence to safety measures while they are on campus as well as at home. To support this effort, prior to the start of school, we will provide an updated student/family handbook and orientation and training materials describing what to expect on the first day to help transition students to a COVID-safe campus.

We understand that there are families with higher risk members in their households. As a community that prioritizes health and safety, we must all do our part to adhere to state health recommendations and regulations to control transmission and potential future outbreaks. We expect you will have questions and welcome your feedback and suggestions. We are eager to listen to and help each family navigate any concerns they may have. Please feel free to contact Gina Panza, Head of School at gpanza@stthomasday.org or Heather Mokotoff, School Nurse at hmokotoff@stthomasday.org with any questions and concerns.

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community expectations All members of the St. Thomas’s Day School Community have a shared responsibility to prevent the spread of illness, especially when they are aware of a diagnosed communicable disease or suspect that they have contracted a communicable disease.

It is imperative that all members of our school community remain committed to the safety policies and procedures listed in this and future communications to help keep students, faculty and staff safe. By enrolling your child at St. Thomas’s, you agree to the following requirements:

follow federal, state, and local orders All families are expected to adhere to the directives of applicable federal, state, and local government health departments, including the CDC, regarding physical distancing and masking in public, and other measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.

influenza vaccine

stay home if sick

stay home if exposed

For the safety of our students, staff and families, all students, faculty and staff will be required to have a current influenza vaccine in order to return to school after winter break.

Exceptions will be made ONLY for students who have a written note from their primary care provider noting medical exemption.

If your child is sick, you are expected to keep him/her home from school. Further details regarding our sick policy will be shared later this summer.

If your child or someone in your household has been notified that they test positive with COVID-19, you must notify Heather Mokotoff, School Nurse, as soon as possible at hmokotoff@stthomasday. org. You may be asked to keep your child home from school for 14 days based on current CDC guidelines. During this time, your child will be able to continue classes via distance learning.

travel Please avoid ALL unnecessary travel outside of Connecticut.

If your child has traveled outside the state of Connecticut, you are required to notify the School Nurse. If your child has traveled to a state with high prevalence of COVID-19, he/she may need to be quarantined for 14 days based on requirements from the State of CT which the school will also mandate following. During this time, your child will be able to continue classes via distance learning.

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community expectations

face masks

hygiene

Send your child to school with a face mask every day he or she is attending on-campus classes. Teach your child how to properly use and remove a face mask. If using fabric masks, ensure that your child’s mask is cleaned daily.

Practice and reinforce good hygiene practices at home, in particular, the importance of frequent handwashing.

school uniform Students in all grades will be permitted to wear their gym uniforms daily.

Sneakers must be worn on gym days and will be permitted on all other days. Students may choose to wear items from the school uniform; however, ties and blazers will not be permitted in upper school. Please ensure all pieces of the uniform are cleaned daily.

students’ personal items Limit the items your child brings onto campus each day. Your child will not have access to lockers and therefore, he/she is expected to bring only their books, lunches, snacks and refillable water bottles to school.

Reinforce policies around the sharing of food, supplies and other items with other students.

medical forms; emergency contacts Families must complete and submit all required student medical forms prior to the first day of school. Families must provide a minimum of three (3) emergency contacts who are able to pick up your child from the school within one (1) hour of receiving a call from the school if your child presents with a temperature or becomes ill during the school day.

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investments in safety, financial aid & our community

The pursuit of these goals requires that St. Thomas’s make significant financial investments across a broad range of efforts, including:

Our classrooms are being reimagined with new schedules and smaller, discreet cohorts in order to minimize the risk of transmission of the virus. In the event of small numbers of infections on campus, this will enable us to have the affected cohort learn from home for two weeks without requiring that the entire campus close and revert to distance learning. This planning for safety and durability will require St. Thomas's Day School to invest financial resources in additional staffing for continual supervision and monitoring throughout the day.

With more teaching spaces needed, classrooms and other areas are being prepped to ensure that all students will be safe and have the best learning experience. Given the uncertainty of the health situation in our community and on campus, classrooms are being set up with additional technology, which will allow for greater connections for students who may need to learn from home and a quicker pivot to a distance learning format, should the need arise.

As we navigate the current health crisis and its related financial impact, St. Thomas’s is committed to three important goals: to provide safe, in-person instruction for all students; to keep all of our students (both new and returning) enrolled; and to retain all of our employees to the best of our ability.

enhanced health and safety measures With safety as our highest priority, St. Thomas’s Day school is investing more than $500,000 in enhanced COVID-19 safety measures.

Some of these measures include the following:

 Upgraded ventilation systems in compliance with CT state guidelines with remote monitoring and daily flushing of air

 Increased staffing (school nurse, additional teachers, custodian)

 Plexiglass barriers

 Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for all employees  Establishment of a formal school nurse’s office with an isolation room  Establishment of a School Safety Committee

 Thermal scanners for fever detection  Touchless hand sanitizer stations  Touchless fixtures in classrooms and bathrooms  Amplified cleaning practices as per the CDC guidelines

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increased financial assistance To support families who are adversely affected by COVID-19, St. Thomas’s has created a COVID-19 FUND. Our goal is to continue to provide access to a St. Thomas’s education for all of our currently enrolled students. We understand that these are difficult times and are committed to doing our very best to help families who may be adversely impacted by these circumstances. If your family is experiencing financial difficulty, please contact Katie Patterson at kpatterson@stthomasday.org for additional information.

covid-19 monitoring plan

general health status and communications

Members of the School Safety Committee will regularly monitor health indicators reported by the State of Connecticut agencies as well as our school community. They will track the number of COVID-19 cases in the state; the number of students and employees on campus who report illnesses; the number of people with reported fevers; attendance and a host of other data points that will factor into our community’s health status and inform any actions our school will take.

Our overall goal will be to calibrate our school operations and instruction to the public health conditions present at the time. Based on recommendations from the Pandemic Task Force, St. Thomas’s will issue an update to the overall health risk status of the school in the form of a three-tiered Color Code system -

We will monitor and analyze these indicators for predictive trends and anomalies. Recommendations made by the Pandemic Task Force will be shared with Gina Panza, Head of School, Heather Mokotoff, School Nurse, and other administrators, and any changes to our health protocols will be shared with our community.

low

moderate

high

The Color Code will be shared on the school website, and any changes in status (e.g. Green to Yellow or Yellow to Red) will be communicated to families using our School Messenger System. To support the need for families to have as much information as possible, we will also send out regular emails with important updates and information that parents need. At all times, we will strive to provide families with as much preparation time as possible for any potential changes to our risk status.

Depending on health conditions at the time, St. Thomas’s may open the school year at an elevated level of alert. We may also choose to begin school with more stringent safety protocols in an effort to orient our community to the new safety standards.

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color codes St Thomas’s Day School has created a three-tiered color-coded system to help define the health status of our campus environment. These tiers provide general guidelines for activities on and off campus.

LEVEL OF ALERT

green

GENERAL CONDITIONS

LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

Infections remain very low in New Haven/CT

Monday - Thursday 8:15am - 3pm, Friday 8:15am - 2pm (drop off begins at 8:00am)

Confidence in epidemic control LOW

yellow

Minimal to moderate community spread

Monday - Thursday 8:15am - 3pm, Friday 8:15am - 2pm (drop off begins at 8:00am) All students on campus Students in cohorts of 12 or less No mixing of cohorts

MODERATE

HIGH

Students in cohorts of 12 or less Limited outdoor mixing of cohorts of same grade

Uncertainty in epidemic control

red

All students on campus

Substantial community spread State Health Department, Mayor or Governor issued stay-at-home orders or otherwise closed all schools

Campus is closed to students, faculty and staff Distance learning (synchronous and asynchronous) for all students

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health and safety measures

The health and safety of our community is our highest priority.

The following is a list of safety measures that we are planning to put in place. Further details about these and other safety measures will be shared in our upcoming student handbook.

6FT school access

face coverings

physical distancing

Indoor school space will be used and accessed only by students, teachers and essential personnel. Access to indoor school space by anyone else will require approval from the Head of School. Families will be assigned a designated door for arrival and dismissal.

Students and employees will wear face coverings throughout the school day. Further details will be shared later this summer. Students will be required to arrive at school with his/her own clean face coverings.

Face coverings will be provided to faculty and staff prior to the start of school.

All movement on campus will be controlled and directed to reduce the intermixing of student cohorts. Unnecessary foot traffic will be limited as much as possible in hallways. Desks will be placed at least 6 feet apart with students facing in the same direction to minimize transmission risk. Cohorts of students will be permitted to interact more closely for limited periods particularly while outside.

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health and safety measures cohorts and decreased mixing of students Academic schedules and classroom use will be designed to keep students in smaller, consistent groups during the day. This will reduce the risk of viral transmission and allow for discrete cohorts to quarantine in the event of infection without requiring that the entire campus close and shift to distance learning. Designated bathrooms will be assigned to cohorts and will be accessed by a single individual at a time unless assistance is required.

hand hygiene Students and faculty will follow a regular schedule of hand washing or use of hand sanitizer throughout the day. Students will be required to wash their hands each time they enter the classroom. Hand sanitizer dispensers will be available at numerous locations as well as sinks for handwashing in most classrooms. No-touch lighting, bathroom fixtures and trash cans will be used wherever possible.

enhanced cleaning/ disinfection schedule St. Thomas’s will deep clean and disinfect school spaces thoroughly prior to reopening. Daily cleaning practices will be compliant with CDC recommendations, including the types of cleaning products used and the frequency of cleaning. Special attention will be paid to the cleaning of high touch surfaces and the playground structures throughout the day.

health screening Families are asked to monitor their household members for multiple symptoms including fever, and avoid bringing sick children to school. Parents, students, faculty and staff will be asked to self screen and report any symptoms to the School Nurse. In addition, there may be temperature checks and symptom screening prior to entering the school building. Specific protocols will be established based on the current guidelines prior to school reopening.

Students with symptoms will be separated from other students and parents/guardians will be contacted to arrange pick-up within the hour.

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health and safety measures updated sick policy and enforcement practices Rules regarding sick policies for students and employees will be enhanced and strictly enforced to minimize the number of sick people on campus, as well as to allow continuity of learning from home for mildly ill or asymptomatic students. More details about this sick policy, including what symptoms to check for and who to notify if sick, will be shared later this summer and detailed in the student/family handbook.

quarantine and contact tracing If a student or employee has a COVID-19 infection, specially trained and qualified school officials will support the Department of Health’s efforts for contact tracing and enforcing quarantining of those infected and their contacts. Provisions will be made to support educational continuity from home during quarantine periods.

self care and well-being Pedagogy and classroom practices will provide greater attention to student mental health and well-being to build resilience and cope with the stress or anxiety students may experience in this pandemic context.

We are keenly aware that feelings of anxiety can be heightened in situations such as this. St. Thomas’s has a full time School Nurse and access to mental health professionals and other resources to assist families.

other safe classroom practices Teaching methods will be adjusted to minimize shared equipment or learning materials between students; Classroom practices will reduce transfer of objects between home and school and touching of other students’ personal belongings; Students will be assigned individual books and materials, art supplies and technology devices as per cohort.

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extracurricular, experiential learning and auxiliary programs We are committed to providing meaningful experiences for all students in life outside of the academic classrooms. We also acknowledge that in our current environment, these experiences will be different from the pre-COVID-19 context.

Chapel, town meetings, plays, presentations and assemblies: Based on guidance from state health officials, daily chapel service, and any on campus in person performances involving more than one (1) cohort of students will be held virtually.

Excursions All school trips (day and overnight) will be suspended temporarily.

Extended Day Activities Early Opening, Extended Day, School Orchestra, and all other before and after school activities are suspended temporarily.

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additional considerations We understand that you may likely have additional questions that have not been answered in this initial plan. Rest assured that more information will be forthcoming in our Return to School Updates as well as in our Student/Family Handbook which we will send to you in August. These documents will share further details about the school schedule, pick-up and drop-off, food policies, sick policies and self-quarantining, the start of school, requirements regarding PPE and more.

accommodations and support While it is our hope that as many of our students and faculty are able to begin the school year together in person, we recognize that there are situations where a student, teacher or staff member has a personal health situation that puts them at particular risk for COVID-19.

St. Thomas’s Day School will offer a self-paced, asynchronous learning experience online that coincides with the in-school program. Students who are unable to attend in class sessions will work from home independently, following a step-by-step collection of lessons, videos, and activities curated by the teachers via Google Classroom in conjunction with Google Sites. The program will cover the same content as the in-class program, absent of a virtual and social component.

We support the health and wellness of all of our community members and will do our best to accommodate the unique needs of individual students and employees. If you feel your child is at higher risk or if you have particular concerns about their presence on our campus, we encourage you to notify Gina Panza, Head of School at gpanza@stthomasday.org as soon as possible.

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Thank you to the members of the Pandemic Task Force Executive Committee: Gina Criscuolo, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees Dr. John K. Forrest, MD, FACC, FSCAI; Vice Chairperson of the Board of Trustees; Associate Professor of Medicine; Director of Interventional Cardiology; Director of Structural Heart Disease Program; Yale University School of Medicine & Yale New Haven Hospital Heather Tookes, Treasurer of the Board of Trustees; Professor of Finance at the Yale School of Management Eileen O’Donnell, Secretary of the Board of Trustees; Partner and Creative Director of the O’Donnell Company The Rev. Keri Aubert, Rector of St. Thomas’s Episcopal Church and President of the St. Thomas’s Day School Corporatio Tracey Meares, Former Member of the Board of Trustees; Walton Hale Hamilton Professor and Faculty Director of the Justice Collaboratory Yale Law School Linda Meyer, JD, PhD; Member of the Board of Trustees; Professor of Law at Quinnipiac University

School Safety Committee: Gina Criscuolo, Chairperson, Board of Trustees Deepak Goplani, Business Manager Heather Mokotoff, School Nurse Gina Panza, Head of School Sarah Walters, Assistant Head of School Additional Resources: The following websites provide important information about COVID-19, health alerts and updates, symptoms and testing, and guidelines for staying healthy: » Connecticut Department of Health » Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) » World Health Organization (WHO) Questions: If you have any questions or concerns about school policy, please contact Gina Panza, Head of School at gpanza@stthomasday.org.

Heather Mokotoff, RN, MSN, APRN, PPCNP-BC; School Nurse Gina Panza, Head of School

St.D Thomas’s AY SCHOOL C5 AS OF 7.17.20