Dear Calhoun community,
As you probably know, a major winter storm is headed for New York. We have adopted the "abundance of caution" standard for all our decision making this year. Under the current circumstances, we want to be sure that our faculty and staff are able to get to and from home safely, and particularly to avoid stranding them on transit in the middle of this pandemic.
Consequently, with the Winter Storm Watch currently scheduled to begin at 2pm on Wednesday, we will end school at 12:30pm tomorrow (Wednesday, December 16) for LS-EC, LS-E and MS, to allow our employees to get home safely before the main part of the storm begins. Division Directors will follow up with details about staggered dismissal times in those divisions. Upper School is remote on Wednesday and will have a full school day. ASP and after-school MS athletics are cancelled for tomorrow.
Anticipating a significant storm — at least in parts of the tri-state area — we have also decided that all divisions will be remote on Thursday, December 17. While snowfall in New York City may in the end be minimal, it appears likely that at least some areas where our faculty and staff live will be hard hit. We feel that it is better to provide certainty for planning than to leave everyone in limbo until Thursday morning.
Finally, since Friday was scheduled to be a school-wide half day, and we do not think it is prudent to bring students back to campus for just a few hours (especially given interruptions to our Thursday testing schedule), we are going to declare Friday an old-fashioned snow day and allow everyone — students, families and teachers — to begin their winter break a day early.
I understand that making these decisions now exposes us to the risk that this storm will turn out to be a nothingburger. Out of an abundance of caution, we are going to take that risk. I feel enormously fortunate that we have sustained our in-person and hybrid learning through these past months and feel — as I wrote last week — that best can be the enemy of better. So we're going to err on the side of keeping everyone safe.
Pre-Return COVID-19 Testing In a similar vein, I know that many families and employees are concerned about returning to school after winter break given the interruption in our testing cycle and the escalating prevalence rates locally and nationally. In light of this, we have decided that we will implement gateway testing after winter break — all students and employees will be required to obtain a clear test for COVID-19 prior to returning to campus.
For students and staff at 74th St., we have already communicated that Monday, January 4 will not be a school day so that all community members can come to school and deliver saliva samples for testing through Mirimus. We will be remote on Tuesday to ensure we receive test results and return to in-person learning on Wednesday.
For students and staff in all other departments and divisions, we will ask you to either be tested independently using a take-home kit or at a site near you, or to come to Big Calhoun on Thursday morning, January 7 to give a saliva sample at school for testing by Mirimus. We are putting the finishing touches on an info page on gateway testing options and logistics. It should be available here by tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for your flexibility and your forbearance. I'll check back in with everyone one more time before winter break with a message that — I hope — has nothing to do with coronavirus!
In partnership,
Summary:
The Calhoun School: www.calhoun.org
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