Dear Parents and Guardians,

As we continue to navigate this year, we see growing pandemic challenges all around us. As the incidents of COVID-19 in our region, country, and world are rapidly increasing with each day, our Pandemic Team, Medical Review Board, and Senior Administrative Team are in regular communication. With varying data sets coming from a wide variety of sources, there is no easy answer to decision making.

Absent definitive directives from federal, state, and local officials, decisions about which instructional model to implement are left to each individual school. In my own decision making, I have been using the frameworks provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the Allegheny County Health Department, and the CDC, along with the actual number of COVID-19 incidents at WT. While there is simply no one factor or data point that would trigger the move to an all-remote model, when viewed together I remain confident that our Divisional Models currently are working and that we are not yet at a point that would require us to shift to remote learning. The two-week move to remote learning in our Lower School was successful in halting community spread, and we have not seen any additional cases. The Middle and Upper Schools remain without incident.

UPCOMING HOLIDAYS

I have growing concerns about the upcoming holiday periods and the travel and gatherings that are likely to accompany those. I shared expectations a few weeks ago in a message to the community. As with everything else, new information requires regular re-evaluation of decisions and I share an update to the information here:

Thanksgiving

In my earlier communication, I reminded you of the need to quarantine should you travel to one of the growing list of states designated by Pennsylvania as a hot spot. That continues to be the expectation.

I had also asked that those who host house guests who have traveled from a hot spot quarantine. With the growing number of states on the list and understanding that many of our employees and families have children returning from universities/colleges or even have family and friends traveling from a hot spot in Pennsylvania, it seems that may have been an unreasonable request.

Instead, I am urging everyone that is hosting and/or attending indoor holiday gatherings to continue to follow best practices for the mitigation of COVID-19. Those include maintaining physical distancing, wearing a face mask, and regularly washing hands. Eating and drinking indoors in close proximity to others increases risk as well and so, I urge you to eat outdoors. If you maintain these safety protocols, there would be no reason to quarantine, and your child/children could return to school as usual.

Winter Break

No doubt many are growing weary of the limitations placed on us, and many of you are planning to travel over the Winter Break. With the 14-day quarantine period that is required upon return from a hot spot, this will prove challenging to resume operations under our current mode. This requires a change in our approach.

We will reopen school on Monday, January 4 with one week in all-remote learning for all divisions. I urge you to complete travel during the first week of break, December 20–26, so that the 14-day quarantine period would be completed by the time we resume our on-campus and Hybrid Divisional Models on Monday, January 11.

WINTER SPORTS

We are cautiously proceeding with a winter sports season using our Return to Sports Action Plan as a guide. Similar to the fall, grade 5 and Middle School students will participate in intramurals; Upper School students will compete interscholastically. The season officially begins on Friday, November 20. Currently, student-athletes are wearing masks during practice and will continue that practice. We will evaluate the season as we go. Given our small gym size, no spectators will be allowed at home games. We will be live-streaming those games. One COVID-19 case on a team will place the entire team into quarantine for 14 days. Our fall Athletics season went without incident and if we are careful, our winter season can follow similarly.

SPRING BREAK

I continue to field questions about the previously announced change to Spring Break with some urging me to reinstate the week of March 22. It is impossible to know if travel restrictions will be lifted by that time, and with a pending vaccine's tentative timetable for wide distribution unlikely by March, we will continue with only one week of break, Monday, March 29–Friday, April 2, allowing us to end the school year as scheduled on Friday, June 4.

FINAL THOUGHTS...FOR NOW

We have achieved a great deal of success this year because of our commitment to our protocols. With the goal of mitigating spread of the virus within our school, we have made smart, science-based decisions that have allowed us to keep COVID-19 at bay. But we cannot grow weary of our attention to those protocols. Masks work. Hand washing works. Physical distancing works. Both at WT and in our lives outside of school. Now is not the time to relax. Our individual choices contribute to the health and safety of our community. We urge you to stay the course and appreciate you doing your part, as each day we are able to be on campus is a gift to one another and to our students.

Be well,