School Year 2020-21
Covid-19 Response
10/5/20 Phase II
October 5, 2020
Dear Falmouth Academy Families,
I write to you this evening with an important update regarding the school calendar between Columbus Day and Thanksgiving. As you know, we began the school year in a hybrid model, with middle schoolers coming to campus every day and high schoolers alternating weekly between on-campus and remote attendance. Doing so not only reduced density in our corridors and other shared spaces, but it also allowed us to introduce and normalize a number of new practices and protocols with the benefit of fewer students and more adults in the building at any one time.
In the meantime, we have been monitoring health conditions both here at school and in our local area, observing the efficacy of our practices and protocols, as well as the level of compliance on the part of our students, consulting with trusted medical advisors, and gathering data from students, teachers, and parents about how they are experiencing school.
In considering all of the data, particularly our own run of good health, local case counts that remain relatively favorable, the opportunity to take advantage of outdoors while we can, and a cold and season flu season that is not yet upon us but bound to arrive in early winter, if not before, I have come to the conclusion that this stretch of time presents us with an opportunity that may not avail itself for much longer. As such, we will be modifying our model so that between Monday, October 19, and Friday, November 20, all grades will be on campus every day.
Obviously, this calendar model is contingent on the usual factors: should we determine that the increased number of students on campus precludes us from enforcing school protocols or should school and local health conditions worsen, we are fully prepared to return to a hybrid model. I would add that there is a very strong likelihood that we will return to a hybrid model after Thanksgiving and beyond.
Please note: there are two truncated weeks during this span of time, during which we will adopt a special hybrid rotation that has some students on and some students remote, so mark your calendars:
- During the week of October 13-15,
- October 13: Grades 7, 8, 9, 10 on-campus, 11 and 12 remote
- October 14: Grades 9, 10, 11, 12 (PSAT/SAT) on campus, 7 and 8 remote
- October 15: All Grades Remote* (following the Thursday remote schedule)
- During the week of November 23-24, each grade will be in school 1 of a possible 2 days:
- November 23: 10, 11, 12 on campus; 7,8, 9 remote
- November 24: 7, 8, 9 on campus; 10,11,12 remote
* Please note this late-breaking change. With faculty elbow deep in progress reports and an increased student presence the following week, I believe my team needs the time and space to prepare. If you absolutely require your child to be at school, please contact Mr. Earley and we can arrange a space for him/her to do his remote studies
We will, of course, continue to thoroughly sanitize the building each evening, ensure that all spaces are well-ventilated, and enforce policies and practices related to hand hygiene, and students will continue to be required to wear masks indoors at all times. In order to monitor distancing requirements more effectively, we have also assigned outdoor spaces by grade, and the seating and lawns in these spaces are being labeled to indicate clearly where students can (and cannot) sit and still maintain the requisite social distance.
We appreciate that there is a wide range of perspectives on this subject. Thank you for your continuing support, patience, and understanding.
Matt Green
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