Dear members of the Key community,
This week Governor Hogan and County Executive Steuart Pittman have instituted new restrictions across the state and county in an attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. These new steps were in response to metrics and data that show disturbing upward trends in positivity rates, rate of infection, and the daily case per 100k residents.
During the month of November the positivity rate has been above 5%, and the rate of transmission has been above 1.0x consistently in Anne Arundel County. Rate of transmission shows that COVID-19 spread is not controlled, and cases per 100k is higher than when the state was sheltering-in-place.
Key, to date, has been very fortunate. The most disruption we have experienced has been related to waiting for individual test results and not the disease itself. However, all the metrics that we have used as thresholds for conducting on-site instruction are above the acceptable levels, and the additional metric of case rate now being used to measure impact by local, state and federal agencies has grown exponentially in our county and region.
I have continued my outreach to the Maryland State and Anne Arundel County Health Departments, who in late summer approved our reopening plan, to regularly seek their insight and advice regarding school operations. Given all the recent data, it is their recommendation that Key School transitions to distance learning given the current status of the pandemic. We are all acutely aware of the value of on-site programming for all of our students, and that any decision we make regarding adjusting on-site programming creates tremendous challenges for parents and teachers alike. However, we must listen to, and have our decisions informed by, the agencies charged with public health and safety in our community.
Taking into consideration the ages of our students, their developmental needs, their safety as well as that of our faculty and staff, and the importance for families to plan for an extended distance learning period, we have decided to phase into a distance learning model before Thanksgiving Break, as follows:
Monday, November 16
On-campus instruction as scheduled: Key-Wee-Grade 4 and grades 7-12
- Picture Day for students in grades 7-12 will go on as planned, and Upper School skill sports training teams will have their sessions after school, accompanied by an opportunity to celebrate fall senior athletes. Details about that celebration will be communicated over the weekend.
Tuesday, November 17
On-campus instruction as scheduled for Key-Wee - Grade 6
Wednesday, November 18 - Friday, November 20
On-campus instruction for Key-Wee, Pre-School and Pre-Kindergarten with 12 noon dismissal daily
Distance Learning for Kindergarten - Grade 12
Monday, November 23 and Tuesday, November 24
Distance Learning for Key-Wee - Grade 8
No Upper School - Conferences
- For families that wish to make the decision to not return to campus next week, students may join classes through the Gateway Option virtually, starting on Monday.
- While faculty will make every effort to get necessary materials into student backpacks early next week there is the possibility that we will need to provide additional materials and may create a pick-up day for all families next Friday, November 20, which is already scheduled as a pick-up day for Gateway families. More details about that, if necessary, and other pertinent information will come from your Division Head in the coming days.
- If you have any medications in Nurse Katie's office that you would like to have for this period of time, please reach out to her directly, kanderson@keyschool.org, and she will arrange for pick up on Friday, November 20.
Throughout the region individual schools are making choices about programming, and will continue to do so. We have, and will continue to make our choices with the primary focus being the health and safety of your children and the adults who work with them.
The Maryland Health Department has recently created a Dashboard that shows twenty-six private schools have had outbreaks resulting from a relatively small number of cases in their communities. While I do believe that schools are relatively safe, especially when taking appropriate precautions, they are not immune. When we can return to campus, we must continue to follow all the health and safety precautions that we currently have in place.
It is our hope that the new restrictions will stabilize and lead to a downward trend in the county metrics so we can return to on-campus instruction for some, if not all, of our students on Monday, December 7, as previously announced. Between now and then we will closely monitor the above mentioned metrics and be in regular contact with both the County and State Departments of Health for ongoing guidance. We will also make decisions about on-site programming in the context of the extensive safety measures we have in place on campus, the age ranges of individuals with diagnosed cases in our County, and the impact that distance learning has on the social and emotional well-being of our students. Pinpointing an exact date for a decision is just as difficult now as it was back in late summer. We plan to make a final decision in the week of November 30 about the two instructional weeks prior to Winter Holiday Break.
Throughout this pandemic we have taken an iterative approach in our decision-making. While I know that we all fervently want specific dates and timeframes for decisions, COVID-19 does not allow us to have them. The virus does not care about the stress, struggle and anxiety it causes all of us. Its primary and sole focus is to spread relentlessly. I continue to offer my sincere thanks to all of our families, faculty and staff, administrative team, students, and members of the Board of Trustees for the patience, flexibility and commitment to keeping Key safe.
We need to step away to ensure we maintain the safety of our community, but we do so with a commitment to returning as soon as we can.
Stay safe.
Matthew