Dear AISC,
Don’t forget! When you are not sure where the next round of resolve and resilience can come from, it’s time to get perspective.
This session with Sean Truman on Monday is relevant to all community members and all are welcome – students, faculty, staff, and parents! You can register for the event here.
Over the course of the last twenty months, the Covid pandemic has upended the social and emotional lives of people living around the world. This is particularly true for young people, who have disproportionately experienced high levels of anxiety, depression and social problems. These changes have occurred widely, affecting even those who previously were doing well and had no history of emotional difficulty. The presentation will address how and why young people have been so affected by the pandemic, and we will discuss ways that parents can provide support to help their children cope more effectively.
Omicron on the Mind…
Like all of you, our eyes and ears are on the Omicron Variant of COVID-19. I have two relevant reminders for all of us: don’t panic and stay informed. We are going to learn a lot more about this variant over the next few weeks. We can and we will adapt if necessary.
Remember, as of right now, our current plan is to be open and on-campus on Monday, January 10, 2022. Given the latest news regarding the Omicron Variant, the landscape remains particularly dynamic – however, for now, there is no change to our approach regarding our protocols and January return to campus.
The international reaction to the Omicron Variant is also causing anxiety and stress among us. Travel restrictions that were being eased are now returning to some countries and regions. Continue to consider travel (especially international travel) with all due preparation and care. If you opt to travel, stay abreast of travel rules for destination countries and entry rules in Chennai, Tamil Nadu and other gateway Indian cities as expectations vary and can be unique across states.
This variant reminds us that we are moving into the endemic phase of the Coronavirus – it is here to stay and we will be living with this across the globe. Awareness and vigilance need to be a way of life for each of us.
One of the silent stressors among us is the need for heightened levels of personal responsibility to keep the curves flat. This is hard, necessary, and tiring. For everyone.
What seems most apparent right now is that we should continue to do everything we have been doing to optimize health-safety for ourselves and those around us – vaccinations, testing, daily health screening, masking, avoiding crowds, staying in well-ventilated areas when possible, and social distancing. All of these matter.
We
are paying attention to three things as the current spate of information,
policies, and perspectives proliferate.
- What do the international and national health organizations know about the Omicron Variant? We watch the World Health Organization, Center for Disease Control, and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare information platforms. You can see for yourself what those organizations are sharing at those sites! Right now, the phrase “it is not yet clear” dominates the scientific information regarding the Omicron Variant. From the New York Times: “…Public health experts have urged caution, noting that there is as yet no firm evidence that Omicron is more dangerous than previous variants like Delta, which quickly overtook its predecessors in the United States and other countries.” Given our past experience with the Delta Variant, our COVID-19 Leadership Teams are going to be highly attuned to our Data Lab (see below!).
- What do the numbers here in Chennai say about the spread of COVID-19? New cases in Chennai continue to decline. This week, they have been consistently hovering around 100. Should community spread increase and any aspect of our Return to Campus Rubric (see below!) begin moving toward RED, we would revert to Virtual Learning.
- What, if any, travel restrictions may be imposed as pre-cautionary measures against the spread of the Omicron Variant? Right now, following the Winter Break, we are scheduled to return to campus on Monday, January 10. Should travel restrictions like mandatory extended quarantines or air travel restrictions occur, we will consider implementing Virtual Learning following the Winter Break.
On a Different Hopeful Note! What is Project Get Back?
As we learn to live amidst the coronavirus and Get Back our holistic on-campus life, we are also thinking about and planning for specific actions that we can take safely and with all due caution. The recent news regarding the Omicron Variant is a reminder of the need for us to maintain the highest standards of health-safety that have been central to our return-to-campus process.
As
we plan for phasing-in a more holistic campus life, we are keeping the
following questions front and center:
- As
we enhance on-campus life, what are the primary risk factors?
- When
we consider specific actions, what if any enhancements to protocols can we and
will we make to assure optimum health-safety?
- When can we expect to resume specific aspects of on-campus life – assuming all external SOPs/requirements are met?
Here’s the list of items under consideration…
- Standard
start-of-day for all students
- Hot
lunches/snacks for ES and MS students
- After-school
Activities
- After-school
Activity Wednesdays
- MS/HS
team play
- Interscholastic
team play
- Discover
India/Week Without Walls/Classroom Without Walls
- HS
adventure activities
- Field
Trips
- HS/MS
in-person CareerX experiences
- AISC
Staff Creche
- Parents on campus
We welcome your questions, ideas and input as we continue to work on Project Get Back. Email us directly at mryan@aischennai.org or headofschool@aischennai.org.
Reminder - Current State Update
What we know and what families need to do as we head toward our Winter Break.
What do we know?
- EY/KG. EY/KG has not yet been
authorized to open. Following the last Government Order dated October 20, a
decision regarding the opening of lower and upper kindergartens (AISC’s EY/KG)
will be intimated later. 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 have the option of visiting campus on
Saturday, December 4 and December 11.
- 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 do you need to do?
- 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.
Reminder - MS Winter Production; The 10 Best/Worst Things about Middle
School
Thursday, December 9th
@ 5 p.m.
Book your tickets here; https://www.aischennai.org/theater/ms/
Note: The premiere will be a livestream performance. A recording will be available after the premiere.
ABOUT
THE SHOW
Ah, middle school. The best/worst years of your life! The friends, the memories, the life lessons, and of course the...inevitably haunting embarrassments that will leave emotional scars for years to come! Join a group of real life middle school students as they uncover the wonders/perils of their first dance, the marvels/horrors of field trips, the joy/humiliation of gym class, and many more of the numerous fond traumatizing aspects of life as a middle school student.
NEW – Next Week At-A-Glance
Office of Teaching and Learning Update – Joelle Basnight, Deputy Head of School
Personnel
Update
Admissions
and Parent and Alumni Relations Director, Deb Allen, has decided to explore new
adventures in the fall. We thank her for her service and look forward to our
continued collaboration through the end of this school year.
Starting this summer, Jodie Sovak will assume the role of Enrollment and Community Relations Director. We are thrilled to welcome Jodie to the role! Please see her bio and photo below.
Jodie is not new to the AISC Community. In the year 2019-2020 she served as our Part-Time Strategic Partnership Lead, functioning as a key member of the Advancement Office. Prior to which, Jodie Sovak worked as the Head of Community Relations at The American School of Bombay and has held a number of roles there in the Offices of Admission and Advancement over the past 8 years. She moved to Mumbai from New Jersey, USA, 13 years ago. Before moving to Mumbai, Jodie enjoyed 8 years working as a secondary mathematics teacher in both public and private schools in the U.S. Jodie lives in Chennai with her husband, Sean, and two daughters, Kerala and Kiran, presently in grades 10 and 7 at AISC.
Wednesday
Early Release Update
The last Wednesday of November marked our semesterly Wellbeing Afternoon for faculty. Together teachers engaged in a wide range of activities taught by their peers. This week faculty will once again meet in sections to end of term business. Finally, next week will be spent in curriculum meetings and disciplinary teams will continue to address development and documentation as per the curriculum review cycle. As a reminder, the cycle starts with the “vision phase” in which disciplines examine the relevance of their existing philosophy statements and educational standards. Once complete, disciplines move on to the “planning phase” in which they investigate and address vertical and horizontal articulation, ensuring the implementation of the adopted standards do not cause gaps or overlaps in learning, while ensuring that the reporting standards appearing on report cards align. Disciplines in the “action phase” write units and assessments while those in the “reflection phase” document their overall curriculum review process. Start to finish, the full process can take a number of years.
Technology Update – Dr. Greg Clinton, Director of Technologies/Research
& Development
Learning
Models Survey Reminder
On
Monday, November 29 you received an email from AISC with a link to a short but
important parent survey. (Here
is the link.) This is an opportunity to provide us with feedback on you
and your child's experience with our various learning models this year, and we
hope you have a few minutes to respond. The survey will close on Tuesday,
December 7. Thanks to those who have already shared their thoughts and ideas!
Advancement Office – Gautami Ramachandhran, Advancement Director
CareerX:
Winter Break Edition
We have three virtual Winter Break opportunities for CareerX and high schoolers can sign up here!
At-a-Glance
Information
- When
is CareerX: December 27– 30, January 3–7, 2022
- Organizations
are categorized as: Sustainability, Healthcare, Agro-Tech
- Read
more about the experiences here.
- Sign Up Here!
- Last day to sign up: December 14, 2021
If you or your organization would like to offer a career experience during the Spring or Summer Breaks, please write to advancement@aischennai.org.
Parent Relations – Deborah Allen, Director of Admissions and Parent/Alumni
Relations
PCA
Giving Tree 2021 - Available NOW!
The PCA’s Giving Tree is an online event again this year, and all in our community are welcome to contribute! In collaboration with several local foundations, wishlists with pre-selected items have been set up, making donating this year an easy and pleasurable experience. For those in our community who prefer to contribute to a worthy monetary fund, the Agua Gifting Smiles Appeal is another option. For a complete list of the organizations with futher details, including links to the Amazon Wish Lists, click here.
Please join our community in purchasing some of these much needed items such as books, shoes, food, clothing, blankets and much more. Need a reminder? Look for PCA Giving Tree 2021 display boards (with QR code) at the gate during drop-off and pick-up times in the next two weeks!
PCA
Monthly Meeting - Monday, December 6, 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Join us for the December Monthly Meeting, and please note the TIME CHANGE: 1:30-2:30 p.m. -- this will allow for parents to attend the meeting on Zoom and reach AISC campus in time to pick up their children after school. This month's meeting will have a holiday theme. Be prepared to learn more about how the holidays are celebrated around the world with our fun and informative Kahoot. We will also share more information about this year's PCA Giving Tree.
When: Monday, December 6, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. IST
Where:
Join us on Zoom here
Meeting
ID: 945 2831 2597
Passcode: 619915
NESA
Parents as Partners Series - Webinar #7, Tuesday, December 7, 7:30 to 8:30 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 #7, At What Cost? Defending Adolescent Development in Fiercely
Competitive Schools -- Presented by David Gleason on Tuesday, December 7, 2021,
7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Anxiety, depression and their dangerous manifestations — substance abuse, eating disorders, self-injury and suicide — are increasing student conditions in competitive high schools around the world. Why are so many students struggling?
In this webinar, Dr. Gleason reviews the various ways in which parents and educators alike are contributing to how and why it is that students are struggling. Dr. Gleason then offers realistic ways that adults can work together to create healthier and more balanced schools.
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
Writing
the New Story of Wholeness, Integration and Inclusion
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.
‘21-22 Community Directory
Our community directory will be shared on Friday, December 10.
Have a fine weekend!
Stay connected.
Andrew A. Hoover
Head of School
headofschool@aischennai.org
COMMUNITY NOTES
Reminder - Student Protection Update – Michele Ness, School Psychologist/ES
Counselor
During November 14-20th, Child Safety Week was bserved in schools and communities all across India. Child Safety Week is a collaborative movement to raise awareness and encourage collective action towards addressing the issue of Child Sexual Abuse.
It is estimated that 1 billion children aged 2-17 experienced some form of physical, sexual, or emotional abuse in the past year. Research indicates that many instances of child abuse are preventable through prevention, education and adopting protocols and procedures that protect the most vulnerable members of our community.
AISC utilizes an evidence based, multi-pronged approach focussing on prevention, education, and standardized reporting processes to ensure that our students receive annual instruction with a Student Protection curriculum that uses developmentally appropriate language and skills specific to their grade level. These lessons are delivered by the section counselors and Health teachers who have knowledge, training and expertise in best practices on Student Protection.
This
fall, the Tamil Nadu government notified all educational institutions to implement
procedures outlined in The
POCSO Act.
The POCSO Act specifies procedural and protective measures that must be in
place in all schools to prevent sexual abuse of students. Features of POCSO
have been implemented in our AISC community, including updates to our Student
Protection Manual, the forming of a Student
Safeguarding Advisory Committee, the addition of confidential Safety Boxes on
the ES/MS/HS campuses, and updating some educational components in our Student
Protection Curriculum. Section specific videos on appropriate utilisation of
our Safety Boxes will be shared next week in counseling lessons and Advisory
and Crew times.
All AISC employees will be required to review the new features of POCSO and sign an updated attestation as part of our Child Safeguarding policy. If you have any questions about AISC’s Student Protection plan, or the POCSO ACT and its implementation on the AISC Campus, please contact Michele Ness, Student Protection Lead at nmichele@aischennai.org.
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.
Reminder – Returning to Campus Update
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.
Returning
to Campus Details
We continue to wait for allowance to bring our EY/KG students back to campus and to have students new to returning to campus. Here’s what you need to know:
- 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!
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.
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 189 confirmed COVID-19
cases in our community since January 2021, with 4 active cases currently,
including 1 student. 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. More than 75% 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. 99% of the school faculty are fully
vaccinated.
Staff:
100% of our school staff are vaccinated. 99% are fully vaccinated.
Mask-Wearing
Matters
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.
Cotton cloth masks - A few layers of cotton forming a mask blocks about 50% of the aerosols compared to the 85% for surgical masks and 95% for N95 type. As with the other masks, getting 50% largely depends on having the mask fit the face of the wearer well. It’s possible that an ugly home-made mask that fits very well could be providing better protection than a higher quality mask which is not worn properly.
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.
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