Dear St. Anne's Families:
I am writing as a follow up to my message regarding the announcement from the Governor yesterday afternoon.
After consulting with other independent schools in Delaware, and discussing the situation with our Board and health professionals on the Safety Task Force, we have made the decision to have our campus remain open through December 18th, as originally planned. We do not make this decision lightly but do so with confidence knowing that our school environment is safe. As the governor mentioned in his announcement:
"The data here in Delaware and our lived experience with the many schools that have successfully reopened, combined with what we've seen across the country and in Europe, indicates that the risk of transmission in school when social distancing protocols are followed is not significant. The harm of keeping students out of school, as we all know, is."
In addition, our relatively small size and spacious campus means that we do not have some of the same "operational challenges" that larger districts face.
As previously mentioned, we continue to evaluate the best course of action for our campus reopening after the holiday season. As it stands now, and consistent with the feeling that our school campus community is a safe one, we plan on returning to school in person on January 4th. Should that change, and we all know that things could change very quickly, we will let you know.
Of course, we know that our community is not immune from the coronavirus. Just today, we received notice of a student in the Preschool who has tested positive and I share this news with you in the spirit of full disclosure and openness. As we have done previously, and per our policy, we are working closely with the Division of Public Health and all those who are defined as close contacts will be contacted with further instructions. We will be following up shortly with our preschool families directly with additional information.
Finally, as a reminder, please do what you can to keep your family safe and healthy outside of school. To quote again from the Governor's release:
"data from our epidemiologists shows that the vast majority of those 576 cases originated outside of the school building."
We continue to move forward during this challenging time with conviction, confidence, humility and a collective belief in our students. I continue to remain grateful for your trust and faith in us to know, love, challenge and inspire your children as well as to keep them safe.
My very best wishes to you and your family,
Barry |