Campus Reopening Plan

Roadmap to ReOpening

线上博彩平台排名 has welcomed students back to campus this fall. With new guidance in late August, we altered our plans to gradually introduce students and teachers to campus. A staggered reentry has supported our staff in managing drop-off, dismissal, and transportation processes; provided additional runway for our maintenance team in facilities preparations; and has offered faculty and students more opportunities to build comfort with new protocols and practices on campus.

We continue to offer modified on-campus learning experiences for our students. We believe there are important benefits to on-campus instruction and have developed age-appropriate plans for every division.

It is our hope that the status of community health in Philadelphia this fall will continue to make modified in-person instruction on campus possible. At the same time, we also want to underscore our keen awareness of the unpredictable nature of the public health situation both locally and nationally. We have built our plans for the upcoming year so that we can respond adaptively to current COVID-19 case conditions in Philadelphia and other critical data. Our decision-making about how we reopen has been guided by the CDC, city, and state guidelines, and in consultation with our Medical Advisory Board.

Please note that our roadmap is likely to undergo revisions and changes to accommodate new information and guidance from public health officials. Although typically community health predictions are accurate within one-month horizons, COVID has proven unpredictable. There may be unforeseen shifts both in increases and decreases in cases. There may be new vaccines and therapies that significantly change our considerations. Any changes will be done to best protect the 线上博彩平台排名 community in an adaptive way and will be communicated in a timely fashion.

Below you will find:

Plan FAQs and highlights
Guiding principles
Divisional plans
Food, transportation, and after-school information
Health and safety measures (see sidebar as well)
What you can do to prepare for school

Roadmap FAQs

Click here to view frequently asked questions. We will update this document over time and will alert families of any changes.

View FAQs

Highlights

Staggered Start: Students re-enter school with an intentional schedule. Please see charts for more information.
Remote Option: For all grades, there is a remote learning option for those who chose not to return to campus. To assist in planning, families are asked to indicate their intentions for their child(ren) on a quarterly basis. Classrooms are outfitted with digital broadcast systems to support remote learners.
- For EC-Grade 2, we offer learning coaches for those who chose to be remote (based on availability).
Divisions:
- Upper School proceeds with a HyFlex model of schooling in which programming exists in both in-person and/or remote modes each week. Please see below for specifics by grade. Wednesdays are dedicated to student support, unique mixed-grade programming, and extracurriculars.
- Middle School has a hybrid of in-person and remote learning instruction with students having most of their classes in a cohort model. Days on campus vary by grade, please see below. Wednesdays are remote.
- Lower School is on campus daily and remains in classroom cohorts, with modifications to manage density while indoors.
- Early Childhood is on campus daily and remains in classroom cohorts.
Technology: All students in EC-Grade 8 have received a Chromebook. A survey was sent to Upper School students in August about signing out computers for the year.
Athletics: Plans were announced in conjunction with League decisions.
After-School: ASPire, Early Childhood Extended Day, and on-campus clubs are not in session this fall for EC, MS, and LS in order to maintain strict cohorts. We know this is very difficult and may operate limited after-school care for those who contact us, via the division director.
- All Upper School students are welcome to campus for athletics, physical education, and select performing arts programming each afternoon from 3:15-5:45 p.m.
Learning Guides: Learning guides help our remote Early Childhood and Grades K-2 students navigate Colloquia at home. Please see below Early Childhood and Lower School sections for details.
Food Service: The cafeteria is closed, but CulinArt offers pre-packaged options for grades 1-12 that can be ordered online and delivered to various outdoor eating locations, as determined by division. Students may also bring their lunches.
Transportation: School District of Philadelphia Buses for students in grades 1-6. See Veracross and Family News for current updates.
Academic Calendar: The 2020-21 calendar prioritizes in-person learning, when it may be possible; professional development designed to support faculty and staff in strategic areas of DEI, and remote teaching and learning; and regular breaks throughout the school year.
Ruvna is used for required daily health screening for all students, faculty, and staff. PPE and other risk measures are strictly enforced. Please see the sidebar and section below for details. See Veracross and Family News for details.

Family and Employee Portals

Health and Safety Measures

As advised by public health agencies and our Medical Advisory Group, the following are the key Risk Mitigation strategies we are implementing for a safe reopening. More details are in the Working Plan below.

The RUVNA app is utilized for daily health screening.
No students or employees may come to campus if they are exhibiting symptoms of an illness.
- We ask that families communicate with the school nurse if an illness is suspected.
We have limited the number of students and adults on campus to decrease density.
Students are dropped off at designated locations.
- We have parent-free arrivals and departures. Teachers or staff members escort young students to and from class during drop off and pick up.
Anyone who enters the school must wear a mask.
- Students and faculty/staff have physically-distanced outdoor breaks from masks.
Physical distancing:
- We are observing the medical standard for physical distancing: 6 feet apart.
Frequent handwashing:
- We provide additional hand-washing stations and enhanced access to hand-sanitizer stations.
- Hand washing frequency is encouraged according to CDC guidelines.
We frequently clean and disinfect high-touch objects and surfaces across campus.

Handwashing tips

Working Plan

Guiding Principles & Assumptions

Guiding Principles

All of our reopening decisions are driven by the following principles:

Live our mission.
Sustain and continue to build our community of students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni and friends.
Create a safe learning environment and experience for all students and employees.
Continue to provide the singular and exceptional 线上博彩平台排名 education and educational experience.
Be prepared, responsive, and nimble.
Base decisions about on-campus instruction using credible data and guidance from public health agencies and our Medical Advisory group.

Assumptions

COVID-19 is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person through small droplets from the nose or mouth, spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or sneezes.
COVID-19 transmission can be greatly reduced through the use of masks and hand washing procedures.
The school can put policies and procedures in place in order to greatly reduce the risk of transmission.
The physical safety and mental health and well-being of our community is our top priority.

Plans by Division

We believe that school provides many benefits in addition to learning: structure for the day, an occasion for social interaction, stimulation and opportunities to grow and learn. Our hope is to remain on campus. However, in this year unlike any other year, we have asked our teachers to design instruction with online instructional methods at the center. This allows them to accommodate students at home and also allow to toggle between on-campus and remote instruction should we need to close school completely.

Please see updates in a letter from Dana Weeks and view charts by week here.

Early Childhood

Early Childhood students come to school every day. They remain in their classroom cohorts and often break into even smaller groups based on the activity.

Each class forms one cohort with their teachers and the cohorts will not mix.
Classes often divide into half groups to reduce density for learning activities and take advantage of outside spaces as much as possible, both for play and learning.
Children have received a personal set of classroom supplies and a Chromebook to support individualized and portable learning, whether on the campus or remote.
Specials take place in the classroom or outside, weather and activity-dependent.
Students unable to attend in-person classes or activities are supported remotely via live stream (synchronous) and asynchronous lessons.
Learning Guides are provided to families to support learning from home. Extended Day activities do not occur on campus.
Please contact us if picking up your child at 3 p.m. presents a hardship.

Learning Guides
Families with children in Early Childhood and through Grade 2 may choose to have a learning guide to support their student(s) during remote instruction.

This may occur if 线上博彩平台排名 is offering school in person and a family chooses to send their student(s) remotely.
It may also occur if 线上博彩平台排名 moves to a remote or a partially remote daily schedule.
Families who send their children to 线上博彩平台排名 in person school may request a learning guide now to be prepared if/when 线上博彩平台排名 moves to remote programming.

Learning guides work with their student(s) for the full day including both synchronous (live) and asynchronous learning times. As essential workers, the learning guides may continue to work with a family even if Philadelphia moves into a red phase. One guide will support all of the students in a household who are in EC through 2nd grade.

In addition, we are considering learning pods for remote learning provided the city, state, and CDC guidelines allow it. Learning pods are groups of children (no more than 4) who live nearby one another and come together to learn in one student's home, accompanied by one or more learning guides dependent upon age and group size.

The purpose of the learning guide is to help young students to manage technology, activities, and assignments. During the spring, we recognized the toll it took on parents to supervise young children in their remote learning and looked for ways to ease the burden of what felt like homeschooling for many. 线上博彩平台排名 is implementing the learning guide program as an optional support for parents. Families may always choose to guide their student(s) remote learning.

In addition, we are investing in our young graduates, whose lives have been equally upended by COVID-19. Many young alum are either not in school/employment and/or learning remotely themselves. It seems natural to pair former 线上博彩平台排名 students with our youngest learners in order to support the work of the classroom. These young people are not teachers by training, and intentionally so, though all have worked with young children in some capacity. 线上博彩平台排名 teachers will be designing and leading instruction and the learning guides--who have been steeped in 线上博彩平台排名 practices, culture, values, and languages--are the facilitators.

The learning guide program was successfully piloted over the summer during virtual camp. Guides and families will follow the same health and safety protocols as the rest of the school. In addition, learning guide/family groups will agree to be in one another's "bubble" and will practice safe measures outside of the school day to reduce cross-contamination. Families and learning guides will each receive a handbook. Learning guides will also touch base regularly with their assigned classroom teachers to discuss ways to further support remote student learning.

Lower School

The Lower School plan maintains the essence of our typical program with modifications to manage density while indoors.

Additional “breakout” space is provided for classrooms grades 1-5.
Each class forms one cohort with their teacher and assistant teacher, and the cohorts do not mix.
Classes often divide into half groups for learning activities and take advantage of outside spaces where possible. Specials take place in the classroom or outside, weather and activity-dependent.
Teachers and students have regular breaks, typically outdoors and only when physically distanced, when masks may be removed.

Learning Guides
Families with children in Early Childhood and through Grade 2 may choose to have a learning guide to support their student(s) during remote instruction.

This may occur if 线上博彩平台排名 is offering school in person and a family chooses to send their student(s) remotely.
It may also occur if 线上博彩平台排名 moves to a remote or a partially remote daily schedule.
Families who send their children to 线上博彩平台排名 in person school may request a learning guide now to be prepared if/when 线上博彩平台排名 moves to remote programming.

Middle School

The Middle School has a hybrid of in-person and remote learning instruction with students having most of their classes in a cohort model.

Sixth-grade students have in-person instruction on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays.
To reduce density in the Sharpless and on campus, both the 7th and 8th grades work on a Blue and Orange schedule with half of each grade coming to campus on Mondays and Tuesdays and the other half of each grade attending Thursdays and Fridays.
Class instruction is designed so that teachers can address both in-person students and those connecting remotely synchronously.
All middle school students engage in full-day remote instruction on Wednesdays to leverage cross-grade learning opportunities, full division Meeting for Worship, DEI instruction, and clubs.
All Middle School students are welcome to campus to participate in an increased number of athletic options four days a week from 2:30-3:45. (As restrictions lift we will consider bringing all MS students on to campus 4 days per week.)

Upper School

Upper School proceeds with a HyFlex model of schooling in which programming exists in both in-person and/or remote modes each week.

Our current updated framework for the Upper School includes the following key points:

Phased-in Upper School access to in-person class instruction:
- We began with one grade at a time during the first week of school, then expanded to two grades at a time on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays beginning Monday, September 14.
- Wednesdays: Support mixed-grade minor classes, student support, clubs, Directed Independent Studies, and activities.
HyFlex: a core curricular blended online learning program combining dynamic in-person and remote learning.
Daily socialized learning opportunities through co-curricular Athletics, Physical Education, and inter-grade Performing Arts programming.
Schedules transition smoothly between hybrid and fully remote modes with all major classes meeting over two days.
Consistent daily Community Time for grade-level, advisory, and co-curricular programming.

Schematic Upper School Schedule

Upper School Grades and Reports

Given the unique nature of the 2020-2021 school year, assessment practices within each Upper School course are designed for a HyFlex learning environment. Increased frequency and visibility of formative and summative feedback is emphasized across the curriculum to ensure student progress is well monitored. Formal student reports are provided at the mid-point and end of each semester, in addition to following January Term and Junior Projects. Students new to 线上博彩平台排名 and those working with members of our support staff may also receive progress reports following the first month of each semester. Mid-semester reports include letter grades and narrative feedback and semester reports include letter grades and checklist feedback. Year-end reports include a letter grade which also appears on the student transcript.

Guidance and Partnerships

In addition to the CDC, and State, City, CHOP PolicyLab, and local guidance, we are working with over 20 educational partners, vendors and consultants, and our advisory planning committees to determine short- and long-term plans for reopening campus. Advisory Committees include:

Medical
Facilities
Schedule(s)
Program
Communications

Medical Guidance
Given the local and national public health landscape, any plan for reopening school requires scrupulous caution and care. Returning to campus has been undertaken using the guidelines from the CDC, state, and city and with vigilant attention to all current pertinent data. All decisions about returning to campus are made by our Head of School Dana Weeks together with the school committee and in consultation with our administration and our Medical Advisory Board.

The 线上博彩平台排名 Medical Advisory Board is composed of current and former school parents who have been involved in the COVIID-response as doctors, epidemiologists, and researchers. 线上博彩平台排名 administrators started working with this group in the late spring to begin work on determining the best way to re-open school with on-campus instruction given the conditions COVID-19 presents.

线上博彩平台排名 has consulted with the company Environmental Health and Engineering regarding our building and our campus overall.

Partnerships
We have a strong network of advisors, vendors, and peers. Please see this list of our partners.

Risk Mitigation

Population Density on Campus

The first and most important factor in risk mitigation is limiting the number of students and adults on campus at any one time. We have adjusted our schedules to limit the number of people on campus and to ensure that there is the right flow of individuals through the outdoor and indoor spaces. To that end, the divisional schedules outlined above allow us to control the number of students and the use of space so that we are able to mitigate large groups of students or adults congregating on campus.

Mask Wearing

Mask wearing has been identified as the number one way to reduce the spread of COVID-19. The school requires that all students and faculty wear masks when they are indoors. 线上博彩平台排名 provides masks to students and employees as needed, and encourages individuals bring their own masks to use throughout the day. Students have opportunities to take short outdoor breaks from mask wearing in a physically distanced manner.

Hand Washing

Hand washing is also an important aspect of risk mitigation. We have spent considerable time with our team at EH&E thinking about hand-washing stations and the proximity of students to facilities for practicing proper hygiene. We have adjusted our facilities to accommodate these needs and require frequent hand washing throughout the day.

Physical Distancing

Finally, we have also heard from our Medical Advisory group and our team at EH&E about the importance of physical distancing and creating barriers to the spread of airborne droplets. Limiting class sizes and creating space in classrooms has become incredibly important. Additionally, we have purchased plexiglass barriers for tables and certain areas so that students and adults are not coming in close contact with one another when they need to be in closer proximity.

Outdoor Time

We are prioritizing time spent outdoors and have made several campus changes so that we can optimize outdoor space. This allows us to give children and faculty regular breaks so they can be outside of their classrooms. We heard from our Medical Advisory committee about mask fatigue and we want to ensure that we have the appropriate structures so that faculty and students can operate under the guidelines that are in place.

Please see above sidebar for key Safety and Risk Mitigation measures.

Athletics

Athletics Updates (Middle and Upper School)
线上博彩平台排名 has approached the fall athletic season with intentional caution and extreme care for the overall health of our student-athletes, coaches, and for the wider community. In partnership with medical advisors, as well as our peer schools in the Friends Schools League (FSL), we have begun the year with an intramural-based training program for both Upper and Middle School sports as the League decided to postpone the fall league schedule.

The FSL athletic directors will continue to work on a league schedule that will potentially include all three sports seasons later in the school year for our Upper School program.

Protocol
Please see this document from Katie Bergstrom Mark, Director of Athletics.

Fall Sports Program
We have designed an intramural program for both Middle and Upper School teams that encourages athletes to track their improvements and have fun together.

Current Modified Dates
Upper School Sports

Start date: Monday, August 31
Schedule from August 31-September 3, 9 a.m.-12 p.m., by grade:
- Monday, 12th grade
- Tuesday, 12th and 11th grades
- Wednesday: 12th and 10th grades
- Thursday: 12th and 9th grades
September 8-October 30: Regular after-school practices, Monday-Friday, 4:00-5:45 p.m

Note: Off-season small group training for winter and spring sports began on September 21.

Middle School Sports

Dates: Thursday, September 17-Tuesday, October 27
Schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 2:30-3:45 p.m. (in person); Wednesday practices are remote and asynchronous
Fully remote-learner-athletes began on Monday, September 14
Schedule:
- Teams dismissed from Fields at 3:45 p.m.: Coed Cross Country, Field Hockey, Girls/Boys Soccer, Girls Tennis
- Tiger Training Time (“Triple T”), a movement-based athletic development program, takes place on Main Campus, 2:30-3:10 p.m.

Note: Students who wish to update their sports choices can do so with homeroom teachers.

Transportation
More information about athletics transportation to come.

Athletics Outside of 线上博彩平台排名
Many of our students participate in athletics outside of 线上博彩平台排名, including camps, private lessons, youth leagues, and recreational and club organizations. To best support our community, please refer to the guidelines in our Social Compact.

After-School

We strongly encourage all Lower School families to pick up their children or place them on buses at dismissal time. While we know this is difficult, we want to maintain strict cohorting of students and we know that it is safest for students to return home and to be able to take breaks from mask usage.

We also know that there will be some families who will experience a significant hardship in collecting their children from campus at dismissal time. Germantown Friends School would like to meet the needs of our families, while maintaining our social distancing and cohorting protocols. To that end, we may operate very limited afterschool care for families who contact us.

Our clubs program will continue remotely and we will release information about the fall clubs season very soon.

Transportation

Transportation to 线上博彩平台排名 has always been complicated as a result of students traveling from many parts of the city and the suburbs. COVID-19 has provided us with additional challenges in terms of social distancing guidelines and bus ridership for students living in Philadelphia and the suburban school districts.

As a reminder, 线上博彩平台排名 holds a contract with Philly Trans for the majority of the private transportation the school provides. This includes transportation to and from athletic fields, shuttle service, and all scheduled field trips. The school continues to be in communication with Philly Trans to determine what is possible in terms of this kind of transportation for the 2020-2021 school year. We will release that information as soon as it becomes available.

Similarly, many students who live in neighboring suburban districts use district transportation to travel to school. We have been in contact with many of these districts who will alert us to their capacity to continue to provide transportation as their reopening plans become available. We do know several of these districts have encouraged families to create plans for their children’s transportation.

Finally, the School District of Philadelphia provides transportation for almost 250 Germantown Friends School students in Grades 1-6. We have been in communication with the district and learned that they will be busing students to school this year. The district will be following strict social distancing guidelines and planning their routes so that there are only ten children on a school bus at a time. This has increased the number of buses that will arrive at campus each day and the district’s ability to accommodate our school schedule.

The School District of Philadelphia has told us they will deliver students to Main campus between 7:15-7:30 am Monday through Friday. This is earlier than our normal schedule of 8:00 am, yet there will be screening protocols in place for students so this extra time works to our benefit.

The School District of Philadelphia buses will pick up students from Main campus between 2:45-3:05 pm each day. Again, this is earlier than our normal schedule but it will ensure timely bus routes and students returning home.

Suburban buses and private transportation are still undecided. For those who will not be taking the bus, staggered drop-off and pick-up times may be implemented.

Food Service

Germantown Friends School has been working with CulinArt to provide food service for the 2020-2021 school year. Students and faculty will not be permitted to use the cafeteria but they will be able to collect food from various locations throughout the school.

CulinArt has created an app-based system so that families can choose and purchase pre-packed meals online for Grades 1-12. These meals will be delivered to several outdoor locations throughout the campus so that adults and children can enjoy lunch while on campus.

Students and faculty members can also choose to bring their meals to campus and will be required to practice social distancing when they eat. The school recognizes that lunchtime is a time for students to socialize and that they cannot eat and wear their masks effectively. Adults will monitor these unscheduled times and ensure that students are enjoying their lunches while also sitting at a distance from friends. We’ve designated several outdoor spaces as places where students in all divisions can be scheduled for their lunch periods.

More details on available on the Family Portal.

Academic Calendar

There have been several changes to our academic calendar as a result of the pandemic. The school is making every effort to be on campus this fall. To that end, we’ve decided to come to school instead of taking a fall break.

We’ve added a longer Thanksgiving break as a result of the projected increase in cases medical professionals expect in the fall. The school believes we will need a longer period of time to rest, be with family, and return to school at that point in the year.
Spring break is now one week because we will not be taking extended trips in the upper school this year.
Additionally, we’ve added several professional development days to the calendar so we can continue the excellent diversity, equity, and inclusion workshops we have completed in recent years.

Technology

We have adapted our technology plans to better serve our students and families, whether we are on campus or in a remote learning environment.

Hardware

In August, all learners in Early Childhood through Grade 8 will be issued a Chromebook, which will allow for useful consistency in the classroom. Our younger students, parents, and teachers will be provided with login credentials when devices are issued. A survey will be sent to Upper School students in August regarding laptop needs for the year.

Software

In June, faculty engaged in a summer professional development program through Global Online Academy. We have developed a more robust toolbox of online learning software for the 2020-21 school year.

Recording and Streaming

We anticipate some students spending time away from the classroom this year and are outfitting classrooms with digital broadcasting systems. We will provide students who are unable to come to the physical classroom an opportunity to continue their learning and socialize with their on-campus peers. Our updated technology policy for the coming academic year will include details about the use of this technology and other recording tools.

Helpdesk

When we began Colloquia, we also began providing tech support to families. In order to continue and expand this support, we are developing a multifaceted Helpdesk, including the familiar online form, video conferencing support, and a direct phone number. These resources will be accessible through the Veracross portal. Look for more details in August.

What can you do to prepare for school?

There are several ways that you can prepare your child for in-person schooling in the fall. The first is by encouraging them to wear a mask for extended periods when you are home. Children need to improve their stamina and ability to wear masks for a prolonged portion of time. Your help in this area in the upcoming weeks will create a successful start to the school year.

We also ask that you limit all nonessential travel and follow pertinent state and local recommendations regarding behavior that could increase your risk of becoming infected with COVID prior to entering school. It is essential that we all work together to create the best possible chance of limiting transmission between students and faculty. We ask that you behave in ways that support our community and a successful school year.

Please talk with your children about the ways in which school will be different this year. They can expect that campus will feel more structured and there will be more rules in place concerning the way they move around campus. There will be a period of adjustment. Adults at 线上博彩平台排名 are eager to help students adapt to the new reality and the rules of school this year.

Alternatively, if students or families find these new rules too onerous or are unable to comply with the safety procedures we must enact, we will direct them to our online remote learning program, Colloquia. This is in the best interest of our students and the community as a whole.

Families: Please review Family News for divisional preparations.

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