SCHOOL UPDATE We challenge, know, value, and inspire our students to be their best self.
Dear Parents,
We truly appreciate your patience; we are sure you can understand the difficulty of making these important decisions within this landscape of data, evolving circumstances, and shifting guidance.
Over the past several days and weeks, we have been in discussions with health officials and have continually collected data and statistics concerning procedures to help balance our mission with the management of COVID-19 risk. We have utilized local county data, as well as our own school data, to make the following decisions. I have attached the current health protocol for the 2021/22 school year.
Our community must be flexible and resilient regardless of the challenges presented by the pandemic.
Initial drafts of our health protocol for this school year would not have required masks, situationally or otherwise. However, with such widespread and consistent recommendations urging masking in schools, along with the increase in transmission and the current impact of the Delta variant, it would be wise to acknowledge this guidance.
Oakhill will remain cautious, while implementing a common sense approach to virus mitigation. We plan to begin the school year (starting Tuesday, August 17 at Back to School Sneak Peek) with situational indoor mask requirements.
Here is a snapshot of how it will look for each division:
Pretoddler - Prekindergarten - We will continue last year's protocol. Students will wear masks anytime they mix with other grade levels while indoors. Within the classrooms, the students will not be required to wear masks in part due to the developmental nature of speech and language, as well as the emotional and social needs of the children. If you choose to have your child wear a mask, we will make sure he/she wears the mask appropriately throughout the day.
K - 8 - Students in these grade levels will be required to situationally wear masks while indoors, specifically when they cannot maintain at least 3 feet of social distancing. This would specifically include movement through the halls (passing periods, walking to lunch, walking to specials), times of indoor classroom collaboration and/or group work, and any time we come together indoors with mixed classrooms (assemblies, Panther P.A.R.T.Y, Buddy Families, Pep Rallies, etc.). When students are completing independent work where they can increase space, they would not be required to wear a mask. If you choose to have your child wear a mask, we will make sure he/she wears the mask appropriately throughout the day.
PRIME - Students in these grade levels will be required to situationally wear masks while indoors, specifically when they cannot maintain at least 3 feet of social distancing. When students are completing independent work where they can increase space, they would not be required to wear a mask.
Visitors - All parents and visitors are asked to wear a mask while indoors when unable to socially distance themselves from others (at least 3 feet).
Accommodations - If a student has medical or developmental needs with regards to masking, please contact Nurse Cathy or me to discuss.
School Faculty and Staff - The faculty and staff will adhere to the same situational masking protocol as students.
As a school, we are conflicted about requiring situational masking for our students as we begin this school year as masking can have a detrimental impact on students and learning. We now know that COVID-19 is not going away. As a community, we will need to accept a certain degree of risk based on our individual choices and act accordingly over time. Each of us will need to determine our risk tolerance. We are reluctant to set a policy on optional masking at this time and realize that not having some level of masking could elevate the risk for children not yet vaccinated.
The decision to reintroduce required situational masking will be disappointing for some, if even for a short time. But when weighing temporary inconvenience against the potential harm to our students who cannot be vaccinated, I am confident this is the right decision for the current conditions.
We will continue to closely monitor the community data regarding vaccination and infection rates, as well as our school's data, and make changes to our health protocols immediately when necessary; these decisions may differ by division. We plan to evaluate data each week by building, division, grade level, and classroom. Please check our COVID page on the website for weekly updates.
Despite the temporary indoor mask requirement, we will be suspending many of the measures that were in place last year while continuing many of the mitigation measures.
Adjustments to 20/21 COVID protocol include:
Protocol that will remain in place from 20/21 to keep a healthy school include:
This year will feel like school years before the pandemic, especially since we know the above mitigation measures well. We will continue our traditions and events that are an important part of the school year while allowing individual students and adults to make personal decisions based on their comfort level. When we come together as a school indoors (assemblies, buddy families, Panther Parties, etc.), we will require masks of all individuals.
We are fortunate that we are a small school community, housed in two separate buildings on campus. We are also fortunate to have small class sizes (averaging 12 students per classroom) and a proven record of success through our many mitigation efforts with the fight against COVID thus far. For a datapoint, since December 15, we have had two positive student cases and one positive staff case, as well as zero positive cases during our 9 week summer program. We are focused on health and well-being.
We respect every point of view. We will continue to listen, gather data, and make teaching and learning our focus. Thank you for your support and understanding; thank you for your commitment to Oakhill. We are forever stronger together.
Here's to an incredible year,
Suzanne and The Oakhill Board of Trustees
Kent Peterson An Le Jason Rule Lindsey Carlson Sharyl Kennedy Ron Gregg Brian O'Bleness Jeanine Haistings Jennifer Upton Stephen Smith Claudia Feaster Amy Harlin Cam Kirkpatrick Josh Smith © 2016 Oakhill Day School 7019 N Cherry Street · Gladstone, MO 64118 · oakhilldayschool.org |