From the Desk of the Head of School- July 24, 2020


Dear Harding Academy Community,

The COVID-19 virus in Nashville continues to significantly impact our way of life. There are updates and changes daily - even hourly - to the context in which we find ourselves a little less than a month out from our start date of August 20. The numbers are not good and while I am hopeful for a return to school in person, I am ever more cognizant of the possibility that the surge in Nashville may mean a decision by Metro to go back to the original Phase Two which, according to the Nashville Plan: Framework for a Safe, Efficient, and Equitable Return to School means all schools will be in remote learning. 

As I said last week and it remains the case as of today, we are planning to open in person on August 20, as a modified Phase Two allows us to do so. We will offer a distance learning option for those families who choose to keep their children at home. We do ask that you notify the school by next Wednesday, July 29 whether you will be sending your child to school in person or choosing to keep them home so that we can plan. A decision to stay home is not one that would keep that child home for the trimester, but at the family’s discretion. We will ask that you give us 48 hour notice when you would like to send your child back to school. You can indicate your choice HERE

Additionally, as we are now one month out and what we do now will impact people four weeks from now, we all bear a responsibility to the Harding Academy community to take every precaution possible to make sure their family is healthy and safe, as every person’s action matters as we look to regain control of this pandemic. Please continue to refer to the CDC guidelines of how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and make decisions around your family’s activities that consider our community as a whole. At this point I am especially focused on protecting our faculty, without whom none of this would be possible. The safer our faculty because of the commitment of our families to protect the Harding Academy community, the more we can hope for robust in-person learning to continue. 

Having said that, the focus of this chapter are the steps we are taking to make Harding Academy as healthy and safe as possible as we look to open amidst a pandemic. I will start by saying that much of what is contained herein has evolved since my initial communication on June 19. As with everything these days, new information, new conditions, and new considerations necessitated new steps to be put in place. As always, we reserve the right to adapt these policies in order to ensure the continued health and wellness of our faculty and families. 

Preventative Measures

Masks: This is an area where our school policy has evolved. Consistent with the latest guidance from medical professionals, Harding Academy has adopted a mandatory mask policy which requires that all individuals wear masks/cloth face coverings that cover the mouth and nose at all times when on campus. 

Please refer to the CDC guidelines on proper face coverings and have a generous supply on hand for your children. Since they will be used a lot, they will need to be washed a lot in order to be as effective as possible. We are asking that masks or face coverings be of a solid color or basic pattern (polka dot or stripes, for example) without logos or pictures on them. Students will not be allowed out of the car at hook up without a mask, so be sure to have extras on hand. There is no exception to this rule. 

Partitions: As I mentioned in previous emails, we will have a plexiglass partition for each desk or learning station on campus. Along with our mandatory mask policy, this provides another barrier to potential spread. 

Social Distancing: We will expect all individuals on campus to abide by social distancing guidelines of staying six feet away from other people at all times, including in transition, at recess, or at lunch. 

Classroom Setup: Each classroom is shedding any non-essential furniture or materials in order to provide as much room as possible to achieve social distancing of desks in a classroom. We are adopting the guidelines of the Nashville Reopening Plan to have desks in rows where the rows are three feet apart within a row and six feet apart between rows when possible. 

Outdoor Classes: We will encourage our faculty and staff to take advantage of outdoor spaces as much as they deem possible as a further step to help prevent the spread of the virus. Materials for those classes will be accessible via our online platforms of either Showbie or Google Classroom. 

Campus and Building Flow: We have developed one way entries and exits for each building on campus. Staircases have been designated up or down staircases in our academic buildings. In hallways we have indicated through decals and signage which way individuals should be travelling as well as reminders around social distancing and proper hand washing protocols. 

Handwashing: We will be adding extra hand sanitizer stations in all of our buildings, and are in the process of procuring additional hand washing stations. Students will be reminded regularly to wash hands and we are working on fun ways to have kids abide the proper handwashing time and scrubbing expectations.  In grades 4 through 8, students will wash or sanitize their hands prior to leaving a classroom and before entering their next classroom. They will also be cleaning their desk and partitions prior to departing or before sitting down. 

Cleaning Protocols: We will have two people assigned to cleaning high touch surfaces throughout the campus throughout the day. Additionally, bathrooms will be fully cleaned twice a day. We have purchased an electrostatic misting machine which will be used to clean the playground after each use during the day. Buildings will undergo a thorough cleaning each evening and we will continue the stepped up regimen of cleaning that has been in place since March. 

Air Flow: We will encourage those classrooms that are able to open windows or doors to the outside during the day to do so in order to increase air flow. We will also ask teachers to keep their interior doors open during class to allow for maximum flow. We have adapted our HVAC system to pull in 100% fresh air from the outdoors and have upgraded all air filters to the Merv-13 level. 

Health Screening and Monitoring

We are currently screening through a Google Form everyone who comes on campus. You can find a link to that form HERE. As school begins we will be pushing out an app that will tie into our student database which will screen for the following: 

  • Have you had shortness of breath or a cough?
  • Have you had a fever (100.4 or higher) in the last 24 hours?
  • Have you had chills, muscle aches, fatigue, loss of taste/smell, nausea or diarrhea or any other conditions associated with COVID-19 in the last 24 hours?
  • Have you traveled, or had close contact* with someone who has traveled, to or from a foreign country, been on a cruise, or traveled to a state within the US that has a high community spread of COVID-19?
  • Have you had close contact* with anyone with a positive test for COVID-19, currently being tested or awaiting test results for COVID-19, or anyone who has been put in mandated quarantine for COVID-19?
  • Have you tested positive for COVID-19?

*We are using the CDC definition for close contact. This excludes medical personnel and caregivers who wear PPE. 

If your child answers YES to any of these questions, the student should not attend school that day. We will cover next steps for that student under Students and Symptoms. As I mentioned in Chapter 2: Operations, families will need to show a clear screening via the app before they will be allowed to have their child exit the car at morning hook up. 

Students, Symptoms, or Sickness

If Yes to Screening Questions: If your child is a Yes for any of the screening questions above, we strongly encourage you to have your child and family take COVID-19 tests. If a family chooses this route, the student must await the results and will enter our distance learning experience. If a family chooses not to take a test, Harding will adopt the CDC strategy of time-based isolation for that student and siblings, meaning the student will need to quarantine for 14 days and be fever free and symptom free for at least 72 hours before returning to school. We ask families to notify Moira Clark, our School Nurse, and their child’s division director in this case. 

Close Contact to COVID-19 Positive Person: If a student has been exposed to someone who is COVID-19 positive, they should remain at home for 14 days. Again, we are following the CDC definition for close contact as any individual within six feet of an infected person for at least fifteen minutes. We ask families to notify Moira Clark, our School Nurse, and their child’s division director in this case. 

Student Tests Positive for COVID-19: If a student tests positive for COVID-19, we will follow the CDC guidelines, which state that a person can return to school after ten days of the onset of symptoms, provided they have been symptom free and fever free for at least 72 hours before returning to school. We ask families to notify Moira Clark, our School Nurse, and their child’s division director in this case. 

Student Experiences COVID-19 Symptoms While at School: If a student experiences the onset of symptoms associated with COVID-19 while at school, they will be isolated in our new, second nurse’s station, away from the rest of campus. The nurse will assess and reach out to the emergency contacts listed in CompassNet. The student should get a COVID-19 test and follow the protocols laid out above. 

Contact Tracing and Communication

Contact Tracing: We are currently abiding by the guidance of the Metro Nashville Public Health Department on how to handle possible cases of COVID-19. Upon confirmation of a COVID-19 case our first call will be to the Department of Health who will guide us in our next steps as it relates to contact tracing, any potential quarantining to groups of students or faculty who may have been in close contact, and cleaning. It may mean that a portion of our students will need to move to distance learning. It will also trigger CDC guidelines on the shutting down of spaces for deep cleaning indicated by the Health Department.  

Communication: Per Health Department guidance, we will notify families who may have been impacted by a possible positive case. We will notify the school of any partial quarantines that may arise as a result of the findings of that contact tracing. We will NOT disclose the name of anyone who has tested positive or may suspect they have a case of COVID-19. 

Updates

Turf Tent: We will be moving forward with the turf tent and are hopeful that it can be up and running prior to the start of the school. This is a space that will allow further social distancing all year round and provide a space for our PE and other programs, such as they are within the opening guidelines, to continue. 

Athletics: This is another area where the school’s position has evolved based on changing circumstances. Over the course of the last week, we have been monitoring the information being released by the TSSAA and have been represented at meetings of the HVAC, the athletic conference in which our school is a full time member.  Our middle school conference has made the decision to delay the start of early fall sports until at the earliest, August. 30. Additionally, all fall HVAC tournaments have been eliminated and the conference will reconvene on a decision around winter and spring tournaments at a later date. With new information impacting decisions on an almost daily basis, we are continuing to evaluate the safest return to play scenarios for our students that align most closely with our school protocols. 

As always, should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Additionally, if you find your financial situation has been adversely impacted by COVID-19 and you want to inquire about the school’s temporary emergency financial aid program, please reach out to tefa@hardingacademy.org.
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