Building on the announcement last week, please be reminded of the following Holiday Plan:
- We have scheduled one week of virtual classes following the long vacation, January 11-15.
- Each division will provide directions for getting ready for this week before the vacation.
- The virtual week is a full week of school and daily attendance is required. Each day will have a synchronous activity for the purpose of attendance, but schedules will be dynamic, family-oriented, and conducive to our testing schedule.
- There will be a mix of synchronous and asynchronous activities throughout the week and screen time will be carefully considered in our planning.
- You will come to school two times during this week for drive-through testing. This will be family-based testing (family comes together), so appointment scheduling will be in PowerSchool as we did during the October Break.
This is the essential information and more details are included below in eNotes and in upcoming newsletters.
HS Vice Principal Search
We have started the process to search for our next High School Vice Principal after the announcement from Laura Berntson that the family will be relocating to Belgium where Laura will become the Head of High School at the International School of Brussels in August 2021. The Search Committee has already been formed and the initial screening of over 100 applicants has been completed. The Committee will begin first-round interviews in the coming days and once we have a list of finalists, we’ll move to a community-engaged process for interview of candidates with opportunities for students, staff, and parents to all have input into the process. Members of the committee will help in organizing this and we will be arranging virtual visits for our finalists to help them get to know the school while we get to know them. Look for more information soon regarding this process and opportunities for getting involved.
Recovered Students & Staff
The medical team’s recommendation last week to institute a “recovered” status had been talked about for a few weeks including before the October break. We did a comprehensive review of the literature and confirmed through multiple sources that there is general consensus regarding immunity post-recovery for confirmed COVID-19 cases. How long immunity lasts is still unclear, but there is enough data to confirm the 90-day period. CDC recommendations state that people who have had COVID-19 in the last three months and are without symptoms are not considered a risk to others. Further, these guidelines state that testing is not recommended during this period. Currently, there are only a few reported cases of re-infection across all identified recovered cases in the world and only one was within the three month exclusion period.
Therefore, students and staff who are recovered at ASW will be excused from testing during the 90-day period after their positive test. These students should continue to fill out the daily health summary, but their answers will not trigger an exclusion.