Dear AISC,
Good afternoon!
We had an amazing few days back on campus. Here are a few captures of our experience.
Thank you to everyone for daily home testing during our first week back on campus.
The daily new cases numbers in Chennai have dropped precipitously over the past two weeks. New cases in Chennai peaked at just over 9,000 on January 14 and on Thursday, February 3 dropped below 1,800. See below in our Data Lab. This is a good sign that the pressure of the current Omicron Surge is continuing to ease.
In keeping with our practice of abundant caution, we implemented daily testing this week because we wanted to gauge how transmissible the Omicron Variant may be campus. While daily testing over the past four days helped reveal a few pre-symptomatic cases, we believe less frequent testing will be as effective given the other procedures and protocols we have in place to enter campus and optimize health-safety for students and staff.
Starting on Monday, February 7, we will require only two tests during the week to enter campus. Please bring negative test cartridges to school on Monday and Thursday.
There is no need to upload photos as was expected previously. Please take the tests in the morning before school and bring the negative cartridge with you to school. Complete the ParentLocker questions. If the test is positive, inform us through ParentLocker and call the Section Office.
This change is about AISC adapting our protocols to changing circumstances. We appreciate your patience.
Remember, we will re-evaluate our protocols each week as we monitor the community spread of the Corona Virus in Chennai and on-campus.
Updated Weekly – RaptorSafe Enhancements – Adaptations to Our Protocols on Campus
- Update! 2X/Week Testing. This serves our interest in trying to catch pre-symptomatic and asymptomatic cases and slow the spread of Coronavirus. Bring your negative cartridge to campus on Monday and Thursday. No need to upload a photo. Pick up test kits from security at school.
- Update! In-person after school meetings and activities. We are phasing in in-person activities and meetings next week on as needed basis. We will be watching this shift closely.
- Update! No cloth masks on campus. Most cloth masks should not be worn on campus. Surgical and N95-style masks provide optimum protection. (Put away those Raptor Masks for the time being!)
- Update! Outdoor eating routines. We will be using outdoor eating spaces AGAIN next week. This reduces the possibility of transmission when students are maskless.
- Close contact tracing. We are reviewing how we do this each day. For next week, to minimize community spread when/if someone is infected, we will be maintaining a fairly broad interpretation of “close contact” exposures on campus.
- Stay tuned! We will be reviewing these enhancements every week. When safe, we will be getting back to our old routines.
Important Updates - Ryan McFarland, Student Life Director
Positive
cases on campus
This week we had one MS student, one ES student, and one HS staff member that tested positive and had been on campus in the two days prior. In the event of a positive case for a student or staff member that has been in campus, we contact trace to try and identify those that may be a close contact. This week that impacted about another 25 students and 6 staff members. Because of cohorting, excellent ventilation and indoor air quality, mask compliance and all of the other measures we take, we expect the number of people impacted by any active case on campus to decrease as we are able to increase our confidence in our measures, protocols, and systems.
Cases in
the community
At
the time of writing, there are 15 school employees (including 7 members of
teaching staff and 8 support staff) with currently active cases of
COVID-19. There are 7 cases in the
elementary school, 4 in the middle school, and 3 in the high school. We follow
the local government directives where someone who has symptoms during any point
will stay quarantined for 10 days and those asymptomatic for 7 days. In both
cases we want to see two negative tests before returning to in-person work or
school.
Reminder - What does RaptorSafe
really mean?
Our RaptorSafe Protocols and adaptations to our physical plant demonstrate AISC’s commitment to doing everything we can to protect our community, flatten the COVID-19 curve, and optimize continuity of instruction.
- RaptorSafe Protocols. Testing, daily health and temperature screening, social distancing, mask-wearing, and sanitizing habits are among the pillars of our RaptorSafe Protocols.
- Outdoor Spaces. When appropriate, we utilize our outdoors to optimize health-safety. In particular, outdoor eating spaces allow students to eat safely with masks off.
- Ventilation. More than 100 indoor spaces – classrooms, labs, studios, offices, and washrooms – have been ventilated with screen doors/windows and/or exhaust fans. Across campus, we employ air quality/CO2 monitors to track ventilation effectiveness.
- Air Filtration. More than 300 UV and HEPA filters have been deployed in our air handling systems. More than 200 air purifiers have been placed in classrooms and indoor spaces across the campus.
- Sanitization. All surfaces including play equipment are treated with Chem-Dry’s MicroPro Shield, which inhibits viral contaminations. Hand sanitizers are available in every classroom and more than 50 hand sanitizing stations, 70 water dispensers, and 250 touchless water tap sensors have been placed across our campus.
- Sterilization. We employ UV sterilization tunnels to sanitize shared resources.
Cautious optimism. We have continued to watch carefully the daily new cases surge and the pressure on COVID care facilities in Chennai. We continue to see the decreasing new daily case load and the availability of hospital COVID care as positive signals of the trajectory of the Omicron variant. See our Return to campus Rubric and Data Lab below.
NEW - Current State Update
What we know, what we are doing, and what families need to do.
What do we know?
- The
Omicron Surge lockdown requirements have been eased considerably.
- How
many of our students are in Chennai/India? Total: 96%. ES: 94%. MS: 98%. HS:
97%
- Unfortunately,
Pre-K and KG students have still not yet received permission to return to
in-person learning – their Virtual Learning Program will continue next week.
When we know more, we will communicate with our community in a timely fashion.
- Chennai has begun rolling out a vaccine program for children ages 15 and up. If you would like assistance coordinating vaccination for your child 15 or older, please email healthoffice@aischennai.org or you can make your own arrangements through Apollo.
What are we doing?
- Home
testing kits are available for pick-up at AISC.
- We are continuing to collect relevant data on elements of the current surge, and conveying what we know to the community.
What do you need to do?
- Stay
informed: Read Head’s Notes and Principals’ Blogs and stay focused on staying
healthy, flexible, and patient.
- Do not hesitate to reach out to us with questions at any time. (Andrew Hoover: headofschool@aischennai.org; Ryan McFarland: mryan@aischennai.org) Our ears and inboxes are open, so continue to use us as resources.
Board of Directors Update
Board
Election Committee
The Governance Committee of the Board of Directors has formed an Election Committee, which is charged with executing the spring Board elections consistent with our By-Laws. Following are its members:
- Saraswathy
Venkataramani (Election Committee Chair and Council of Advisor member on the
Governance Committee)
- Anitha
Viswanathan (Association Member)
- Louisa
Rogers (Elected Board member and Governance Committee member)
- Ramon
Menendez-Carreira (Board Secretary, Board USG Representative and Risk
Management Committee Member)
- Sridhar Venkatesh (Board Vice Chairperson and Governance Committee Chair)
A direct email will be sent to the Association Members next Friday, February 11 with information on seeking Candidates for the Board of Directors for the term from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2024.
Next Week At-A-Glance
|
Date |
Event |
Details |
|
February 4 |
Community SMS Test |
|
|
February 7 |
PCA Monthly Meeting 1:30- 2:30
p.m. |
Meeting ID:
945 2831 2597 Passcode:
619915 |
|
February 7-11 |
HS WIDA Testing |
Monday - Friday |
|
February 8 |
MS Parent Coffee 8:45-9:45 a.m. Library |
Meeting ID:
973 3222 7834 Passcode:
788589 |
|
February 8 |
Staff Telephone Tree Test 7:00
p.m. |
|
|
February 9 |
ES Parent Coffee - Literacy
Morning Grades KG-2 9:00 - 9:45
a.m. |
Meeting ID: 962 6907 2185 Passcode: aisc |
|
February 9 |
Early Release 2:30 p.m. Faculty Meetings 3:00-5:00 p.m. |
|
|
February 10 |
ES Parent Coffee - Literacy
Morning Grades 3-5 9:00 - 9:45 a.m. |
Meeting ID: 985 9381 0163 Passcode: aisc |
|
February 10-12 |
SAISA Season 2 |
Office of Teaching and Learning Update – Joelle Basnight, Deputy Head of School
Futures Planning
- Blog Update!
Wondering what is happening with AISC’s Futures Plan? Check out the updated blog post by Andrew Hoover and Ryan McFarland.
Andrew and Ryan explain the progress made in the Community and Environmental Responsibility pathway including all action steps taken associated with their goals for the year!
Wednesday
Early Release Update
We have had a number of Wednesday Early Release meetings since the semester began. Here is what the faculty was engaged in over the past few weeks:
January 12th - Faculty attended the 4th session of their “strand learning” for the year. As a reminder, strands include opportunities like Making Thinking Visible, Understanding By Design, Supporting High Ability Learners and Exploring Diversity and Equity. There are two more sessions coming up this semester in February and March.
January 19th - Faculty met in their sections to attend to a variety of topics including curriculum planning, STEAM Fest preparation and English Language Development integration.
February 2nd - Faculty met in disciplinary groups to examine student work using our school-wide data protocol and this was followed by an all-school faculty meeting hosted by Andrew Hoover.
Once again, we deeply appreciate the community for supporting these important extended learning opportunities for our faculty.
Advancement Office – Gautami Ramachandhran, Advancement Director
We Want to Get to Know You!
Whether you’re new to AISC and Chennai or a seasoned Raptor, we’d love to get to know you!
Please take a few minutes to tell us a little bit about yourselves here—it will take only 7 minutes! We look forward to hearing from you!
Parent Relations – Deborah Allen, Director of Admissions and Parent/Alumni
Relations
PCA February Monthly Meeting, Monday, February 7, 1:30-2:30 p.m.
Come one, come all to the PCA February monthly meeting! This month we have a special guest and AISC parent, Beate Renninger, joining us to talk about the Reiss Motivation Profile (RMP). According to the RMP there are 16 motives that determine our values, behaviors and influence our personality traits. Baete is going to share how understanding your profile can be helpful, particularly when considering a career change or transitioning back to the workplace. Additionally, we will discuss the AISConnect magazine, and we have planned a few interactive activities to learn more about each other! We encourage all AISC community members to attend; a special invitation goes out to our new parents -- please join us!
Join Zoom Meeting
https://aischennai-org.zoom.us/j/94528312597?pwd=WGY0Q1lhNXFhMWZDN1c4U0RoY1M3QT09
Meeting ID: 945 2831
2597
Passcode: 619915
NESA Parents as Partners - Webinar #3, Tuesday, February 8, 7:30-8:30 p.m. (IST)
Join us for the Parents as Partners Webinar Series: Semester 2 with new webinars! To participate you may use the same link you used previously, or you may register again to receive a new email/link.
Webinar #3, Navigating Parental Polarities -- Presented by Carolyn McKanders on Tuesday, February 8, 2022, 7:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.
Polarities are ongoing, natural tensions that exist in all social systems - communities, families, professional and personal relationships. These times call upon parents to be radically adaptive to meet new challenging demands and complexity -- parents are dealing more and more with paradox and ambiguities. This work helps parents to gracefully model handling life's dilemmas, communicate in ways that honor children's needs as well as those of adults; enhance productive child and parent communication and decision making.
NOTE: If you are unable to attend, or you want to listen to the session again, the webinar recordings and slides from the previous sessions are posted on the Parents as Partners Info Hub a day or so after each session.
AISConnect Meeting, Wednesday, February 9, 1:00-2:00 p.m.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://aischennai-org.zoom.us/j/5275634017?pwd=Z3kyenl1SUhnMXRhdW9VRXFaZzIxUT09
Meeting ID: 527 563
4017
Passcode: COMMS
Reminder - Community Survey Coming on Monday, February 14, 2022
Each year, we seek feedback from parents on aspects of the AISC experience. Most recently in 2019 and 2020, we used the feedback survey of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools (MSA) as part of our self-study process.
This year, in collaboration with the Governance Committee of the Board, the Senior Leadership Team designed a 30-item survey to invite feedback on a range of items from the parent community. This will be released by direct email on Monday, February 14.
My word for 2022 is GRACE.
Stay connected.
Have a good weekend and a delightful week ahead!
Andrew A. Hoover
Head of School
headofschool@aischennai.org
COMMUNITY NOTES
Reminder – Student Protection – Michele Ness, School Psychologist/ES
Counselor
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.
FOR REFERENCE
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.
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 update these each week.
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 green.
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 opening campus for students.
We also keep our eyes on the following Decision-Informing Variables, among many others, every day:
5. Below the line slope of percent
of positive tests relative to total tests shows that it has crested and is
falling fast.
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.
These should not be worn on campus during the Omicron Surge. 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.
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:
AISC Community Directory – 2021-2022 | AISC Annual Calendar – 2022-2023 | 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