CommUNITY in Action

COMM UNITY IN ACTION

Bishop’s parents help shape the School’s response to the pandemic.

By Trisha J. Ratledge

From afar, the scene was likely a peaceful throwback to pre-COVID days: two friends going for a run after dropping their daughters at soccer practice. But listen in on their conversation and reality sets in quickly.

“There has to be a way to get kids back in school,” Chris Freundt, Bishop’s parent (Carina ’20, Cate ’22), remembers discussing with Fred Wu, a physician with Scripps Mercy Hospital, during their June 2020 run. “That opens everything up. Parents can get back to work, the community can open up, businesses can open up. It has a huge snowball effect.”

They agreed that COVID-19 testing was the key. Dr. Wu had testing resources, but he couldn’t interest the public schools. Chris, a business development executive, knew how to reach the heads of independent schools throughout the county. Within a week, they had a group of interested schools and a rough plan.

At the time, California was emerging in phases from an unprecedented statewide stay-at-home order issued on March 19 by Gov. Gavin Newsom. Bishop’s had shifted to distance learning at the same time.

A growing understanding of how to address COVID-19 brought a glimmer of hope. Through careful planning and proper precautions, Bishop’s might be able to reopen its campus safely in the fall, at least in some capacity. What moved this plan from possible to probable were some powerful allies. Bishop’s parents quietly stepped up from the beginning offering expertise, resources, pathways to solutions. Their guidance in everything from securing personal protective equipment to establishing a state-of-the-art testing program helped the School to move forward with purpose—and a plan.

“At every stage in the pandemic, there were parents who wanted to help us,” says Michael Beamer, Bishop’s assistant head of school for internal affairs. “They were able to do so in ways that were meaningful to our capacity to be open and have students on campus. They have helped shape my work as we’ve institutionally responded to this pandemic.” 0

In the early spring of 2020, it was clear that—in the absence of vaccines— personal protective equipment (PPE) would be essential in preventing the spread of the coronavirus. But demand for PPE simply outstripped supply. Shelves and stockrooms were bare.

With a vendor recommendation and a generous gift, Mike and Karen Stone (Rachel ’17, Samantha ’20, Wyatt ’26) helped equip the School at this critical point, building early confidence through masks and face shields, latex gloves and hand sanitizer.

“I had the good fortune of being in a group of investors in a company called Halo,” says Mike, founder and managing member of FS Investors and chief investment officer for the TPG Rise Funds. “Early in the pandemic, Halo recognized the need for PPE and used its substantial supplier network, while maintaining reasonable prices, to pivot to supporting the wave of need.”

Next was a detailed cleaning and sanitizing audit of the campus during the summer of 2020. Mark Minasian (Lukas ’26), CEO and co-founder of KBS, brought unique skills from his facilities management company to help develop a cleaning and disinfection program that was customized for the varied facilities on campus, featured codified standards and protocols and was verifiable. The first step was to understand the current program.

“From there we began supporting Brian [Williams ’81, Bishop’s director of facilities,] and his team conducting building audits, which ultimately led to writing updated facility standards for each building type, engineering detailed workflows and frequencies, and suggesting approved products, chemicals and equipment,” Mark says.

Inspection and validation protocols developed for the School feature highly sophisticated ATP testing used in health care settings and other high-stakes infection control environments, such as food manufacturing.

With protective equipment and a cleaning/disinfection program in place, three Bishop’s parents led the way for COVID-19 testing. Jennifer Cayer (Maddie ’22), who has spent most of her career in biotech executive management positions, has a deep

knowledge base and broad industry network to draw from. In addition to providing Bishop’s leadership with emerging information on infectious diseases, COVID-19 protocols and more, Jennifer connected Bishop’s to Mobile Xpress Clinics, a mobile testing lab that offers on-site testing with 24-hour results. The first Mobile Xpress clinic at Bishop’s on Aug. 11 marked an important milestone.

“The confidence that grew from a testing program helped us begin to turn the corner and know that we can do this,” says Michael. “We can be here on campus. We now had hard data that suggested we could do it safely.”

“They really did blaze a trail at Bishop’s,” says Jennifer, who is on a number of nonprofit and biotech industry boards, including serving as chairman of the board for UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center. “We were testing early on, we were testing with the gold standard, and we were testing frequently.”

The summer conversation between Chris Freundt and Fred Wu eventually led to the next phase of testing for the School. Working purely as volunteer liaisons, Chris and Dr. Wu connected local schools with the Expedited COVID IdenTification Environment (EXCITE) lab at UC San Diego, and they coordinated the logistics for the delivery of supplies and results. While the EXCITE program requires hands-on administrative tasks at the school sites, costs are reduced by 75 percent, a clear win. Bishop’s transitioned to the UC San Diego testing program on Oct. 21.

By March 2021, Bishop’s had conducted nearly 5,300 COVID-19 tests on campus during the school year, with 10 positive cases identified.

“If each one of those 10 hadn’t been identified and had just been circulating through the community, the whole nature of our reopening would have been very different,” says Michael. “I’m enormously grateful that we had as robust a program as we did.”

When Fred Wu could no longer serve as ordering physician between the schools and the EXCITE lab, Maggie Marshall Paredez ’92 (Phoebe ’23), an emergency medicine physician at Scripps Clinic Torrey Pines, took on the essential role for Bishop’s and ensured the continuation of the testing program. Responsibilities include receiving the results, contacting anyone who is positive and updating the testing demographic data for the student and employee populations. Even as vaccinations roll out, testing remains a vital tool.

“These tests are important because we know that there can be outbreaks,” says Maggie. “To have that reassurance that the kids can go safely back to school—and not spread [COVID] to households—that’s really important.”

Vaccination, the final element, was made possible for many by SkyMD, the telemedicine component of medical corporation Compass Biosciences, which is headed up by CEO Bart Calame (Gregory ’27). Once SkyMD was approved as a vaccination site, the staff started providing vaccinations for Bishop’s employees from eligible priority groups who could not find appointments elsewhere.

On March 6, SkyMD hosted a drivethru vaccination clinic that drew many newly-eligible Bishop’s teachers and staff for their initial shot, along with others in the community. In all, 500 people got vaccinations in three hours.

“The doctors were having a ton of fun,” Bart says. “The single thing that no one will forget was the energy. It was like everyone was coming out of hiding, and that includes the doctors who haven’t had much human interaction either. And then the relief kicked in of having gotten past the big hurdle of that first shot.”

Palpable relief to be sure, after a year of lockdowns, stay-at-home orders, flattening the curve, phased reopenings, hand hygiene, PPE, contact tracing, social distancing, COVID bubbles and all of the other terms added to the 2020 lexicon.

“This is a year that has required incredible patience and remarkable trust of others,” Michael says. “It has been hard and long. Being able to weigh those two things—patience and trust—has brought out the best of this community, where we know everyone is working hard, and everyone is trying to solve these problems. If we continue to trust the people who are making those decisions, we know the outcome will be a good one.”