Dear AISC,
I am writing from AISC’s campus this morning where we are pumping out, picking up, and putting back in preparation to have campus ready for weekend activities and our school day on Monday, November 15.
I have seen the sun this morning and I cannot be the only one to have thought of this classic – Here Comes the Sun!
This weekend, take a breather from our wet and windy week away from campus.
Given that schools have not been closed for the weekend at this time, events previously scheduled to be on campus on Saturday, November 13 and Sunday, November 14 are happening. Should this change, those involved in activities will be informed directly.
Note that unless the community is informed otherwise by direct communication over the weekend, expect to be back on campus on Monday, November 15.
Next week, we are bouncing back with students in grades 1-12 attending classes on campus following three middle school students testing positive during our Diwali long weekend. Thank you to the many community members who attended the Head of School Coffee on Thursday, November 11 where Ryan McFarland and I discussed in some depth the positive case protocols that we implemented last weekend. The presentation shared and the Q&A received through the Chat are linked below under Information and Reminders.
Among the key Takeaways
from our positive cases on campus were:
- Segmenting of students by grade levels and by classrooms
will help us maintain continuity of instruction should another positive case
arise.
- On campus, students, faculty, staff, and guests, maintain
strict adherence to our RaptorSafe Protocols. All community members must
practice these protocols when away from campus too!
- If a student or family member have any flu symptom, perform
a Home Antigen Test and call the Health Office immediately. Do not wait for a
PCR test. Help us help you!
- Students, faculty, and staff should absolutely not come to school if they have any flu-like symptom.
Regarding our positive test protocols, remember that if a student, faculty or staff member tests positive for COVID, they will observe a minimum 14-day quarantine from the day of the first positive test. They are required to be asymptomatic and have negative tests on days 13 and 14 before returning to campus. Close contacts are required to stay home for at least five days following the latest time of possible exposure, and may only return to campus with a negative test and must test daily through day 10 since latest time of exposure. Also, consistent with an abundant caution approach, any students or teachers who may have shared a classroom space with a positive testee are also required to stay home for at least five days and may return following a negative test.
Mask-Wearing Matters – Ryan McFarland, Student Life Director
During this pandemic, wearing a mask is done to not only protect the wearer, but also those who are nearby. Have you not settled on the mask you prefer, or want to know a little more about the options? Our policies on mask wearing have been that masks should be worn unless eating or drinking, should not have a valve (though some valved masks do have a filter), and should fit well. Otherwise, we have indicated that an N95, surgical type, or cloth mask is acceptable. But not all of these masks provide the same level of protection for the wearer or those around them.
N95 masks - Actually, technically a “particulate filtering facepiece respirator” which is designated as N95 is 95% effective in filtering airborne particles according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). These masks are used by medical professionals to protect themselves from patients. The 95% metric depends immensely on having a good seal around the face. A genuine N95 mask does not have ear loops, but straps that go behind the head. In addition to being marked as N95 it also will be stamped with the NIOSH approval number. Counterfeit N95 masks have flooded the markets over the past year, as with many counterfeit items, it’s nearly impossible for anyone not involved in the supply chain to be assured of the quality. The CDC has said that it estimates 60% of the N95 masks in the US are fake. Even though most of the N95 masks we may have access to may not have been certified by NIOSH, they likely do filter better than the next type. China produces masks labeled KN95, Europe has FFP2, and South Korea produces KF94 (all of these may have ear loops). This is redundant, but research has repeatedly pointed to the importance of a very tight fit in order to achieve the 94-95% efficacy that is claimed for the genuine respirators.
Disposable surgical masks - These have been found to be about 80-85% effective in filtering airborne particles when the mask is snug to the wearer’s face. This infographic compares these masks to N95. Achieving a good fit with these masks can be difficult and may require knotting the ear loops, tucking the mask material, doubling up the masks or wearing a cloth mask over the surgical mask.
This is an opportunity to point to the hierarchy of controls again. In this diagram the reliability of the effectiveness of the safety controls decreases as we move downward. At the bottom we have that individual responsibility to wear a mask properly. We have the administrative requirement to wear a mask. But because those layers of our swiss cheese may have holes, we’ve implemented engineering controls to ensure the aerosols inside are flushed out with our open windows and doors, removed by HEPA filtration, and bombarded by UV treatment in our air handlers.
NEW - Current State Update
What we know, what we are doing, and what families need to do as we head into November.
What do we know?
- EY/KG. EY/KG students and
parents have the option of visiting campus on Saturday, November 13. Following
the latest Government Order dated October 20, a decision regarding the opening
of lower and upper kindergartens (AISC’s EY/KG) will be intimated later. EY/KG
has not yet been authorized to open. Awaiting further directives, we do not
know at this time the return to campus date of our EY/KG students. We have
filed a specific request and are awaiting a response to open our EY/KG as we
are a comprehensive EY-12 program. EY/KG students and
parents are visiting campus on Saturday, November 13.
- Further
government issued SOPs and guidelines have been issued. We are fully compliant.
- Thank you for your understanding that parents are not allowed on campus at this time.
What are we doing?
- We
are sharing information here and in Principal’s Blogs regarding returning to
campus.
- We will continue to communicate school opening information in a timely fashion.
What do you need to do?
- EY/KG: If you are a family
with a student(s) in grades EY/KG, we advise that you complete all forms, etc.
to prepare to return to campus, which we will do when we are allowed to do
so.
- Stay informed: Read Principals’ Blogs and stay focused on preparing for more change. We know this is an inflection point of information and preparation. Do not hesitate to reach out to us with questions at any time.
Our ears and inboxes are open, so continue to use us as resources.
NEW – Next Week At-A-Glance
Reminder - Board of Directors Update – Board Meeting
The November Open Session Board meeting will be held in Hybrid Mode on Wednesday, 17 November at 5:00 to 6:20 p.m. IST. Community members are invited to join us virtually.
Please do not share this link with outside our community.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://aischennai-org.zoom.us/j/94380440578?pwd=bGtiUG1PaDIxNTR0TlU0MkNlR0FGdz09
Meeting ID: 943 8044
0578
Passcode: AISC
Office of Teaching and Learning Update – Joelle Basnight, Deputy Head of
School
All
School Learning Dialogue - EAL Parent Coffee Cancelled
The All School Learning Dialogue which was scheduled for November 18th has been postponed. Please look out for updates in the coming weeks.
Parent Relations – Deborah Allen, Director of Admissions and Parent/Alumni
Relations
PCA Diwali Virtual Mela - Website Live
The PCA Diwali Mela website is now live! We have envisioned this to be a hybrid event as it includes hands-on activities and the virtual experience which you can explore with your family.
A family gift bag will be sent home next week (postponed due to the inclement weather). This bag includes a Diwali Activity Book that has information about the auspicious holiday and traditions, as well as creative interactive elements for our younger community members to enjoy. The web-based portion of the event includes pre-recorded community performances, cooking tutorials, and storytelling. QR codes are embedded on several pages of the activity book which will extend and connect the activities to the virtual format for you to enjoy in the days to come!
Reminder
- NESA Parents as Partners Series - Webinar #6, Tuesday, November 16, 7:30 p.m.
Join us for the 2021-2022 NESA Webinar Series: Parents as Partners--an engaging collection of webinars for parents addressing child development within the context of family and school. Twice each month, for one hour, you can join parents from across the NESA region to listen to distinguished speakers.
Upcoming: Webinar #6, Writing the New Story of Wholeness, Integration and Inclusion -- Presented by Kavita Tanna on Tuesday, November 16, 2021, 7:30 p.m.
Achieving wholeness, integration and inclusion requires conversation, reflection and learning. Schools have recently undertaken all of these things in earnest in order to foster a sense of belonging for all members of the school community. This means decolonizing the curriculum, increasing awareness of how language matters and transforming instructional practices. In this webinar, we will identify why this work is needed, define the terms being used and review what schools are doing globally. This webinar will help you to understand the significance and value of this work for all members of the learning community to feel respected, to remember how connected we are and to reconnect to our sense of equity for all humans. You will leave with recommendations of how to engage your children in this meaningful conversation for belonging through a new story of wholeness, integration and inclusion.
Recordings
from the first webinars:
Journeying
Together: Parents as Partners in Social Emotional Learning
A
Parent’s Guide to the Science of Attention
In
Our Classrooms, In Our Schools: What is the Story of Learning?
Getting
the Most from the Marshall Memo
Neutral
Spaces: Tips and Tools for Avoiding Power Struggles
If you have already registered you will receive a reminder with the link, a few days before. If you would like to register for the webinar series, click here.
Reminder – ‘21-22 Community Directory
Our community directory is more dynamic than our pandemic context – students and families adapting to their global and local situations. Our directory is in motion and as this situation evens out, we will be publishing a community directory; our intention is to do so before the new year in January. Stay patient, stay tuned.
Reminder - Emergency Campus Closure Procedure
Should weather or other external situations force a consideration of the safety for students/families, faculty, and staff to travel to school, we could take a decision to close campus (for a day or more, depending upon the situation).
Regarding Virtual Learning, as long as power and internet connectivity are not widely interrupted and no specific directives preclude us, please assume we will revert to a Virtual Learning Day when our campus is closed due to an emergency. If power and internet are or could be widely interrupted, we may take a decision not to hold a Virtual Learning Day.
In general, we operate
by two rules regarding travel safety communication:
- When
we have information that we believe would be relevant and essential to our
community, we communicate it.
- No news means business as usual.
We are careful to
collect information – facts and perspectives – from an array of sources. In
order to assess travel safety in Chennai and to AISC and to make a decision
regarding school closure, we do the following:
- Follow
Tamil Nadu Government directives regarding campus closure and Virtual Learning.
- Engage
timely AISC vehicle reconnaissance forays on bus routes to assess travel
viability.
- Track
local news sources, print and electronic, to keep abreast of the situation.
- Confer
with the Regional Security Office at the U.S. Consulate and consider their
assessment of the situation and/or any recommendations they may have.
- Confer
with the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police and consider their
assessment of the situation and/or any recommendations they may have.
- Assess
the relevance of local school closures.
- Reach out to other agencies to obtain necessary information or perspective should the situation warrant.
Regarding the timing of
an announcement, we use the following guidelines:
- If
we know about a situation in advance, we may decide to communicate a campus
closure a day (or more) in advance.
- In the case of overnight weather or other unforeseen
situations, we will make a decision to close the campus by 5:00 a.m.
- Likewise,
should the circumstances warrant, an early/partial day school closure (that is,
an early release or late start) would be made by 5:00 a.m.
- A decision to cancel ASAs or other after school events, will be made no later than 11:00 a.m. and communicated in a timely fashion.
We will use all
available means of communication:
Campus closure announcements will be conveyed by email, SMS, Facebook, and an announcement on our website. Further, we could activate our phone tree, if we have concerns regarding mobile phone/internet connectivity and/or if we want to make sure that all community members are accounted for.
Also be advised of the
following:
A. Once a decision to keep the campus open is made, we will stay open for students until the end of the school day, or, if a situation warrants, until it is safe for students to leave. Should a situation arise during the school day, we will engage appropriate and prompt communication.
B. Conditions in Chennai can vary dramatically according to locality. If the school has made a decision to stay open, and a student, parent, or staff member deems it is unsafe to proceed to school because of local conditions or conditions between home and school, making a personal decision to stay home is encouraged and will be noted as excused.
Have a great week and let’s continue to practice patience and grace.
Stay connected.
Andrew A. Hoover
Head of School
headofschool@aischennai.org
COMMUNITY NOTES
Health Office Update
If any members of the school community have concerns about a student’s safety, please contact one of AISC's counselors (ES, MS & HS), principals or the School Psychologist.
1. Complete this permission signature form. Parents MUST give permission to their child to return to campus. This has been a government SOP requirement. By completing this signature page, you indicate your willingness and interest to send your child to campus.
2. Completed medical forms. For most grade levels, these can be completed by a parent. New students and those starting grades 3, 6, or 9 will need a physician to complete form B and then parents should email the document to the health office. All other students will need form A completed and submitted. Additional forms are needed only for students that take prescribed medication during the day while on campus and for students that have allergies or asthma.
|
Form |
For |
Completed by: |
|
All students every year |
Parent
- digital form |
|
|
New
students and those entering grades 3, 6, or 9 |
Physician
- hard copy |
|
|
Any
students that take medicine during the school day. |
Parent
with attached hard copy of prescription |
|
|
Any
students that have allergies or asthma |
Parent
- hard copy |
3.
Weekly Rapid Antigen Testing. AISC
has sourced PanBio COVID-19 test kits for the use of staff and students. Every
person on campus will have a weekly home test conducted with kits provided by
the school. These tests were recently approved
by the Indian Council of Medical Research and similar tests are used throughout
the world in helping screen the health of people coming on campus.
It's important to note that these tests will not be entirely replacing the RT-PCR tests. We'll still utilize RT-PCR tests whenever a community member is symptomatic or has had close contact (such as household) exposure to a confirmed case. We will also be able to use these tests to immediately test anyone sequestered to the isolation room on campus, expediting our ability to contact trace.
4.
Every day your child is to come to campus you must attest to your child(ren)’s
health. AISC has partnered with the educational software company ParentLocker
to offer a way for us to monitor student, faculty, and staff health and
wellness. Using this app, parents will attest daily to the health safety of
their children. Everyone will need to do this each day once we are back on
campus.
Requirements
to attend classes on campus
To ensure the safety of everyone on campus we have the following expectations:
Vaccination
Requirements
AISC now requires proof of vaccination for all adults (non-students) over the age of 18 in order to access the campus. This vaccination requirement will also apply to all visitors, including parents.
If you have access to vaccines, we advise you to follow your government’s directives to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
Distancing
AISC is ensuring safety through screening, testing of everyone on campus, vaccination requirements of adults, mask wearing, rigorous cleaning schedule, and a focus on ventilation. We will be maintaining 6 feet of distancing according to locally directed protocols.
Contact
Tracing
We conduct our own in-house contact tracing whenever there is a positive case on campus. In light of the greater transmissibility of newer strains of the virus, we will be casting a broad net in having contacts quarantine. Classmates and staff that may have been present in a classroom with a confirmed case will be asked to quarantine for 5 days and then test before returning. We may adjust as the year progresses, but will start with a very aggressive approach to minimizing community spread.
Illness
Reporting
Despite being in Virtual Learning, it is vital that AISC continues to monitor the health of our student body. While our attendance has been spectacular this year, we also need to know when a student is not well enough to participate in a day’s learning activities.
By way of reminder: Elementary, Middle, and High School parents and/or High School students are expected to email the section offices with the reason for virtual absence when a student cannot attend to/participate in the day’s learning activities. [esoffice@asichennai.org; msoffice@aischennai.org; hsoffice@aischennai.org]
In a typical year, we track illnesses, fevers, and flu symptoms. Now, more than ever, it is so important that we know if a student or household member has flu symptoms and/or has tested positive for COVID-19.
Our Health Office is open virtually. Please use us as a resource.
Our school nurses are Jessy David, Suvitha R and Barkath B and are available on all school days from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Contact our Health Office by email on healthoffice@aischennai.org or by phone on +919840729563 / +919940635827 for any health-related questions or if you need assistance.
Positive
COVID Case Reporting
Given the contagious nature of the coronavirus, the AISC Health Office must stay informed of positive cases in our families’ households. In order to serve and protect community members, positive COVID cases need to be reported to us immediately.
Here
are a few guidelines:
- If
anyone in your household -- including staff (live-in/non live-in) -- tests
positive, please inform the School by writing to the section offices -- [esoffice@aischennai.org; msoffice@aischennai.org; hsoffice@aischennai.org]
or to the Health Office contact details shared above.
- All health information provided by AISC families has always been and will continue to be kept confidential and used by our Health and Planning Teams for record-keeping. When reporting positive cases within our community, the School will not use personally identifiable information.
We thank you for your cooperation in helping us keep our community safe. With collective and personal responsibility, we can all do our part to ensure the health of our community members and to help flatten the COVID-19 curve.
Return to Campus Readiness Update
It has been an exciting few days on campus. With the long weekend for Diwali, Monday may feel like a new experience, so here are some reminders and updated links.
- Complete
the home antigen test on Friday. The form to submit it is here and will be emailed
directly to parents on Friday as a reminder. (Every Friday!)
- Bring the completed test strip in a bag to the entrance on Monday. (Every first day of school of the week!)
- Be
sure to fill in the ParentLocker Connect questions before arriving at the
school. (Every day of school -- even if staying home sick!)
- Try to arrive during the set stagger time for your (youngest) child.
Thank you for your patience as we continue to try and fine tune systems we've never been able to try out. Things have been going very well, but we'll continue to refine and improve.
For
“return to campus” questions, please choose the appropriate contact:
- Ryan McFarland, Director of Student Life, at mryan@aischennai.org
- Lynn Schneider, Elementary School Principal, at slynn@aischennai.org
- Jennifer Bertram, Middle School Principal, at bejennifer@aischennai.org
- Greg Clinton, Director of Technologies and R&D at cgreg@aischennai.org
If
you aren’t sure what kind of question you are asking, we are happy to hear from
you, no matter what!
2021-2022
Data Center
Below find snapshots from our COVID-19 Data Lab. During the school year, we will update these each week (until further notice). Use this information to compliment external sources of information to understand our local context, inform decisions, and as opportunities to ask more questions.
1.
Below, Return to Campus variables remain mostly green.
Return to
Campus Rubric
The
variables on our Rubric have been approved by our partner International SOS and have the support
of the AISC Board.
All of the Decision-Making
Variables below must be GREEN (GO) for AISC to consider re-opening campus for
students.
|
GO |
SLOW |
STOP |
|
Decision-Making Variables |
Explanation |
|
Lock-Down lifted. |
Tamil Nadu has relaxed most
lockdown elements. Some specific and selective restrictions remain in the
areas of travel, retail, commercial, recreational, industrial
activities and movement within the city. |
|
Government has lifted school closure orders. |
Students in grades 1-12 were
given the green light to return to campus on November 1st. |
|
Emergency COVID Health Care. |
This assessment is based on
data from 9 major hospitals in Chennai. Availability of hospital COVID beds,
ICU and O2 beds is high. Vacancy rates remain well above 25%. |
|
Emergency Non-COVID Health
Care. |
Emergency care and access to
emergency care facilities are normal. |
|
COVID-19 Testing Levels. |
Testing levels are high. |
|
Access to Supplies and
Equipment at AISC. |
Our campus is well-supplied and
remains prepared to be opened, when permitted. |
We also keep our eyes on the
following Decision-Informing Variables, among many others, every day:
|
Decision-Informing Variables |
Explanation |
|
New cases below 1,000 per day. |
New cases began falling below
1,000 on June 12. They are now consistently around or below 200. |
|
5 Day Moving Average of new
cases over total cases is less than 2% for two incubation periods. |
This remains well under 2%. |
|
Percentage positive test rate at
acceptable level for one incubation period. |
(WHO 3-12%) We have been below
12% for many incubation periods. See graph below. |
2. Below, notice the curve is flat.
Total cases in Chennai are now increasing very slowly as patients recover and
new cases hold steady.
3. Below, daily new cases in Chennai have
been below 1,000 since June 12 indicating continuing flattening levels of local
spread
4.
Below, we summarize the availability of emergency COVID Care in 9 major private
hospitals in Chennai. COVID Care
infrastructure and resources continue to improve and have returned to pre-surge
normalcy.
5. Below the percent of
positive tests relative to total tests has levelled off indicating fairly low
levels of local spread.
6. Below we have 181 confirmed COVID-19
cases in our community since January 2021, with 5 active cases currently.
Active case individuals observe a 14-day quarantine at home and require two
negative tests before returning to campus. Confidentiality is strictly
observed.
7. Below, vaccination efforts continue in Chennai. Over 70% of the
adult population of Chennai has had at least one shot.
Faculty and Staff Vaccinations
Health
Care Workers: 100% of the school's health workers are fully vaccinated.
Faculty:
100% of our faculty are vaccinated. 96% of the school faculty are fully
vaccinated.
Staff:
100% of our school staff are vaccinated. 94% are fully vaccinated.
Commitments in 2021-2022
Our Commitments for the 2021-2022 school year are here!
Staying RaptorSafe
Our RaptorSafe information is here!
Information and Reminders:
Head of School Coffee Presentation – November 11, 2021 | Head of School Coffee Q&A – November 11, 2021 |AGM Head of School Presentation – September 8, 2021 | Head of School Coffee Presentation – August 12, 2021 | Head of School Coffee Q&A - August 12, 2021 | Senior Leadership Team Town Hall Presentation – July 27, 2021 | Senior Leadership Team Town Hall Meeting – Q&A – July 27, 2021 | Learning Models Framework | Student Protection Manual 2021-2022