Dear Middle and Upper School Families,
What a great first week back on campus! Our students were excited to attend class on site, and they all took our instructions to heart—staying masked and physically distanced, and sanitizing as much as possible.
As we continue with weekly testing of students and faculty, we're pleased to share that all of our students and faculty on campus have tested negative for COVID-19. As part of our mitigation strategies, frequent, regular testing gives us data about possible COVID-19 spread, and we are grateful to everyone for following guidelines.
Looking ahead to the rest of the school year, we have two very important updates to share with you regarding scheduling and stable groups. We are making two changes starting next week (the week of May 3) that will allow a less restrictive learning experience for all. Divisions Are Now Considered Stable Groups One of the recommendations from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LACDPH) was to maintain stable groups of students for safety and contact tracing purposes. With active contact tracing, continued requirement of masking, physical distancing, and handwashing/hand sanitizing, we are allowed to expand our definition of stable groups as we feel appropriate. Our experience over the past week has shown that our students are adhering to these protocols, and thus, we feel confident that we can expand our definition of stable groups to full divisions. This change will allow students in different grade levels to sit in the same classroom. Classes such as World Languages, math, arts/electives, etc., that typically include multiple grade levels, will now move from three separate spaces to a single space.
This is exciting because it means that all students can learn together in an in-person space with their teacher. Desks will remain at least 4-6 feet apart with students masked, and we will maintain seating charts by grade level in the event that we need to contact trace. We feel confident that we can still maintain a safe environment by making this change. Wednesdays Added: Middle School Onsite Days The other change we will be making is that, beginning Wednesday, May 5, Wednesdays will now be an onsite day for middle school. Click here to find drop-off and pick-up schedules for these days (with a slightly updated pick-up time for Mondays and Tuesdays). Most of our middle school students have been attending classes back on campus, and we know that having Advisory, consultancy, and two more classes together in person on Wednesdays will be another chance for them to build deeper connections before the school year ends.
With this change, middle school students will now be onsite Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and upper school students will be onsite on Thursdays and Fridays. Important Reminder: Notification of Offsite Learning Plans With these changes, it is even more important that families adhere to our offsite notification policy. Each morning our teachers have a series of steps they need to take to prepare for meaningful distributed learning. Teachers are planning for fixed groups in person and via Zoom, and last-minute changes to those plans can cause disruption to the class. Please be sure to communicate with your student's teachers at least 24 hours in advance if your student (who signed up and is expected to be onsite) will have to attend classes offsite for any reason. Whenever possible, please limit the back and forth. These details can also be found on our Middle and Upper School Distributed Learning webpage at wildwood.org/mudistributedlearning. Please bookmark this and check it regularly for updates.
Please contact 6-12CovidInfo@wildwood.org for any middle and upper school-related COVID-19 questions.
Warmly, Jaimi Boehm Director of Middle School Vanessa Stotland Interim Director of Upper School Wildwood School |