Your Opinion Matters: January School Reopening

This message is to Renton Prep school families as part of ongoing, transparent information about considerations for reopening in person in January 2021 after break. Please read for important information and complete the poll at the end.

While the Governor has made a public statement that schools should begin to work on returning to in-person instruction, beginning with early childhood, he has advised to look at infection rates in the community to make the decisions about timing. As you know, we have met all health guidelines since August and have had zero COVID spread.

Previously, the advice from the government based on medical direction was to keep schools closed if infection rates were above 45 per 100,000 in two weeks. Our school was still operating with no visible impact from community increases at around 150 per 100,000 in two weeks and zero children with symptoms of any kind in school.

By the time that community levels reached in the mid 200s per 100,000 in two weeks, we began seeing increased infections introduced through school families, making it difficult to manage asking family members to stay at home even if the student personally didn’t experience symptoms but may have been exposed, quarantine requests, basic contact tracing and document and determine if the infection was COVID-related or not. Needless to say, this increased the stress on many families, our office and administration, and teachers who had more uncertainty about whether infection could spread to them while maintaining our health guidelines and hand washing protocols. Our epidemiologist consultant has maintained that the highest chances of infectious spread will occur during eating indoors. We received feedback from families when the temperature dropped to the 60s that they preferred children not eat outside. We were thankful to maximize great summer weather for in person learning as long as possible. We realize that eating indoors is the highest risk factor along with decreased outdoors time during winter weather.

While we only needed to officially quarantine one classroom just before going remote in November, the countermeasures we had in place protected all faculty and staff so no others within close contact became infected.

Looking toward January re-opening, we are considering multiple factors:

1.      Community infection rates

2.      Teacher sense of safety to return and mental health

3.      Family comfort level to return in person and need for child care

The Governor’s press release has increased reopening guidelines to allow recommendation for in-person opening when community infection rates are under 350 per 100,000 within the previous two weeks to start with early childhood and elementary on site (but not recommended for in-person learning for numbers above that).

If community infection rates are over 350 per 100,000, the recommendation is to stay remote as the higher the community rate of infection is, the more likely a school or family member will be to introduce to the virus externally and potentially introduce it into the school. According to the Washington State Coronavirus Response as of December 17, 2020, we are currently at 490 per 100,000 over the past two weeks. Infection rates are predicted to increase within the two weeks following a major holiday such as Christmas (expected spike around January 8, 2021) and again at New Years (expected spike around January 15, 2021). It is not anticipated that infection numbers will stabilize or decrease within Christmas break time, but rather increase.

With January 4, 2021 being the first start day of instruction after break, we are actively seeking feedback from our families and staff as we continue to monitor and make decisions. We have heard students say all they want for Christmas is to come back to school in person. We want that too. I know there are a range of opinions and health limitations, and I know that concerns weigh heavily on many of our faculty. We cannot guarantee our staff that all family members will accurately report symptoms, and that is the most stressful part for faculty. When family accurately report and the school community is working together to stay home with any symptoms, we see a strong impact on the health and safety of our school families and an increased trust in the countermeasures working. As teachers are in close contact with children more hours of the day in full days of school than children may spend interacting with their own family at home, our staff’s concerns and feelings are important to us as well. Schools are increasingly losing teachers because teachers do not feel safe. Early nationwide projections indicate another 27% of teachers will be quitting teaching due to COVID-19 concerns.

We want to hear from your family as we make decisions over the break and monitor numbers and guidelines. We want to provide you the information that could be helpful in providing your opinion.

We would like to know:

1.      If given the option, I would prefer to keep using Ascend health screenings daily during break and be ready to send my student to school in person full time beginning January 4, 2021 regardless of potential increase in infection rates

2.      If given the option I would prefer to get a break from documenting in Ascend during Christmas Break, knowing the infection rates will likely increase the two weeks following New Years and resume documenting health screenings after New Years, wait two weeks and send students to school in person full time after January 15, 2021 after being able to document two weeks of no symptoms before returning.

3.      I would prefer continuing Ascend health screenings daily during Christmas break and start back immediately on January 4th regardless of community numbers as long as the school has the added counter measure of no eating inside (no removing masks). I realize this would at least offer students half-days of in-person instruction and social interaction with no eating on site until infection levels decrease again.

4.      I would still choose to stay fully remote and request to come back to in-person once vaccines are distributed more widely and community numbers decrease to 350 or less per 100,000 in two weeks

5.      I would like choose to entirely stay remote for the remainder of the school year. We will not reconsider returning on campus this school year.

You may click the image below to access the 3 question poll to provide your opinion. If I receive enough responses by this weekend, we may be able to make a decision as early as the beginning of the upcoming week. You may still submit your opinions through Wednesday, December 23, 2020 to be counted.

 This feedback will be incredibly important to us as we make difficult decisions in the coming weeks. We know family opinions may have changed from initial requests in the summer. If we have an increase in families who wish to come on campus, we may need to adjust seating or other accommodations. If we have a majority who request to stay remote for the time being, we can focus on the nuanced opinions for variations on returning to campus as I watch community numbers and weigh educator feelings of safety. If the majority of those who wish to return generally agree on holding in-person reopening in person for the first two weeks after New Years, I can make a quick school-wide announcement that all families may pause daily health screenings during Christmas Break and resume the first week of January. That will allow two weeks of resuming health screenings in preparation for return to campus in person after January 15, 2021. Even with this option, we will still work on options for small groups to come in without eating during those first two weeks in January even if a full reopen doesn’t happen until after January 15, 2021. I am asking for your feedback now. The sooner I get a range of opinions the more efficiently we will be able to make decisions for the school. Your quick cooperation will allow us to get information to you more quickly with less time of unknowns.