COVID-19 School Plan Update - June 23, 2020
Dear Families of Pinecrest Academy,
We have been working with our COVID-19 Task Force, reviewing CDC, Department of Health, Department of Education, and other recommendations and guidelines, to put the best practices in place, as we move into the 2020-2021 school year.
We now have a complete COVID-19 School Plan, with countless hours invested, and with input from doctors, educators, and others to reinforce our comprehensive approach and our strategy to answer all questions, big or small, in the coming weeks. We look forward to sharing the details in a series of upcoming informational emails, videos, and Q&A sessions.
As a first step in communicating this plan, last week, several decisions to keep our community safe and healthy were recommended by the Task Force and approved by our Board of Directors. As they modify our fall schedule, we thought it prudent to share them with you immediately:
1. Back to school start dates will be staggered - High School will open August 6, Middle School will open August 10, Lower School and PreK will open August 10 for a half day, and their first full day will be August 11. This was implemented to help all of us ensure the best and safest possible opening of our physical spaces, our rigorous cleaning protocols, and our community screening protocols.
2. FALL BREAK has been postponed, and those five days will be returned to the instructional calendar. A decision on where the five subsequent vacation days will be inserted will be made as we see the course of the pandemic over the school year. This decision was made to help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 due to travel exposure, and to provide an additional week of instruction as an added safety measure, in case there is a next wave of COVID-19.
3. If necessary, in order to accommodate social distancing guidelines within the classroom, gender mixing will be temporarily allowed during 2020-2021 in the 4th-8th grade classes.
More information and details are forthcoming, but we understand that these decisions affect your schedule, possible travel plans, and your classroom expectations, so we wanted to let you know as quickly as possible.
We apologize for any inconvenience to our families with the modified schedule, but we are confident that these operating decisions are sound and will allow us to protect our students and faculty while continuing to offer in-person education at Pinecrest Academy.
Sincerely,
Charlene Dougal
Assistant Head of School
COVID19 Task Force Coordinator
