Dear Friends,
Like us, you've probably been heartened by the COVID-19 related indicators stabilizing at lower levels recently, which is prompting authorities to consider loosening some of the restrictions under which we've all been operating. As of last Thursday, the case rate for COVID-19 in Los Angeles county was 7.2 per 100,000, just over the 7 per 100,000 people that would allow the county to be moved from Tier 1 in California's Blueprint for a Safer Economy to Tier 2. The county will have to remain in Tier 2 for two weeks before any schools not currently operating with waivers, as we are for our K-6 program, will be able to welcome older students back.
Those indicators, combined with educators' growing access to vaccines, have led the LACDPH to note in a telebriefing on Thursday that it's increasingly likely that Los Angeles County schools will be able to welcome 7th-12th graders back to campuses for academic programming in the final months of the school year. According to the LACDPH leaders, they have not yet determined the requirements they'll have for operating schools with 7th-12th graders. They've noted that the basic mitigation strategies in place—masks, distancing, and handwashing—will be the same as they are for younger students, but they haven't finalized their decisions with regard to the structuring or movement of stable groups of older students. As you might imagine, because middle and upper school students have multiple classes with multiple teachers and are not already placed in cohorts, as are our elementary students, the logistics of having students onsite for academic classes are particularly challenging. That is especially the case when we don't yet know what parameters will be set by the LACDPH.
Colleagues of ours—pandemic coordinators, school directors and program leaders, registrar, facilities team, and others—have been working to develop multiple scenarios, depending on what directives we eventually receive from the LACDPH. What is clear is that there is overwhelming evidence that transmission in schools can be successfully mitigated by the strategies we have and will continue to have in place. As Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the director, also noted last Thursday, there is strong evidence that when those strategies are not consistently applied in schools, transmission is far more likely. Please begin talking with your child now about the importance of adhering to all mitigation strategies and following all rules; our Return to Campus Agreement will provide helpful guidance. Although we so earnestly want all students who wish to be at school to be able to be here, a student who cannot honor the rules will need to access the program offsite.
We do not currently have permission to do so, but, based on the information shared Thursday, we are tentatively making plans that would allow us to pivot onsite on Monday, April 19, after the week of offsite learning following spring break. To accommodate requirements for physical distancing on campus, our plan is to have middle school onsite Mondays and Tuesdays and upper school onsite Thursdays and Fridays. Wednesdays will continue to include a rotation of students on campus over weeks. On their days offsite, students will be on Zoom. The daily block schedule that was implemented in January was designed to accommodate a gradual shift back to onsite learning, and for this reason, we don't anticipate further changes to the class schedule at this time. As we better understand the systems, structures, and logistics of having students back on both campuses, we continue to actively work on plans that would allow 5th graders to close the year on the elementary campus.
As has been the case for a year, things could change based on the directives we receive from local and state authorities. Thank you, in advance, for your patience and understanding if that comes to pass.
We'll get word out soon about an information session for middle school parents, and a separate session for upper school parents, so that we can provide information about a return onsite. Depending on what we hear from the LACDPH and other authorities in the coming week, our hope is to schedule those information sessions for parents prior to spring break.
Looking forward to seeing your children—and eventually YOU—onsite when we're allowed.
Warmly, Christina Kyong Associate Head of School Lead Pandemic Coordinator Landis Green Head of School Wildwood School |