Dear K-8 Families, Faculty and Staff,

I hope this email finds you all well during what has proved to be a difficult time for all, but also a time which brings us together in our common efforts to take care of each other. We remain committed to keeping you as informed as possible as we learn more regarding the impact of COVID-19 in our greater communities, our state and on a national and worldwide scale.

As communciated to you this afternoon, this Friday, March 13, our K-8 students will not have classes. This was already a scheduled ½ day. We have decided that the time that our faculty spends at Mead this Friday is best spent continuing our preparations for Distance Learning in the event that the school must close due to COVID-19.

ELC Centers will be open as usual on Friday, from 6:15am-6:00pm.

In keeping with our efforts to help safeguard the Mead School community during the COVID-19 outbreak, I want to address a few specific steps we are taking and to ask for your continued partnership in promoting the health and well-being of our community.

We are actively participating in webinars sponsored by local, state, regional and national experts, taking warnings from health officials seriously and planning our response accordingly. The health and safety of our community is always our highest priority.

SPRING BREAK:

As you are aware from our earlier communications, we will be deep-cleaning classrooms, hallways, surfaces & carpets between March 14-29, when children and faculty/staff are not present.

Many families have travel plans during this time, and many of those plans have already had to be changed due to the coronavirus outbreak. Under advisement of the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), we are asking for your help with respect to transparency of your family's travel plans beginning with March Break, and continuing indefinitely / until further notice.

We have been closely monitoring the CDC's risk assessment levels by country, which can be followed HERE, at the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Information for Travel.

The CDC is working with state and local public health partners to implement after-travel health precautions. The CDC strongly recommends avoiding nonessential travel, crowded places, public transportation, cruise ships, and long plane rides.

We advise you to be well informed before travelling. Following recommendations from the CDC, any student, family or faculty/staff member who travels to a country designated as a "Warning Level 3" area will be subject upon their return to a 14-day period of self-isolation away from school. Presently, only China, Iran, Italy and South Korea are designated as "Level 3." If your family will be traveling to an "Alert–Level 2" country (check CDC's website for updates), we are suggesting that you seriously reconsider your plans, as there is greater risk of that country being elevated to Level 3 status. This approach is widely being adopted by individual schools, districts and systems across the country.

If you or anyone in your household travels to regions under alert, or finds that they have potentially been exposed, it is imperative that you notify the school immediately and provide as much information as possible. Your family, and Mead as a School, will be required to notify the Health Department to advise them of the situation, and await further instruction.

Some schools are requiring families and staff to provide detailed itineraries for Spring Break and other travel by members of the household into the foreseeable future. We are opting to use an Honor Code approach to keeping our community safe and healthy, as this is far more in line with the trust we place in each other as members of the community. We have created a Survey Monkey Travel Form for you to voluntarily complete. This will help us stay informed and allow for proactive measures to be taken as needed. Please complete this survey in advance of your trip.

Please don't place us in the unfortunate situation of having to follow up with you based on a rumor mill. If you find that you or a member of your family has been placed in a riskier situation than you expected, or that the conditions have deteriorated within the specified 14-day "return" window, we need to know.

THE LATEST FROM GOVERNOR LAMONT:

Late this afternoon, we learned that Governor Ned Lamont declared civil preparedness and public health emergencies. Information below comes directly from a press release on Connecticut's Official State Website: https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2020/03-2020/Governor-Lamont-Coronavirus-Update-March-10-2020-3PM

"Governor Lamont declares civil preparedness and public health emergencies:

This afternoon, Governor Lamont signed declarations invoking both a civil preparedness emergency and a public health emergency in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The emergency declarations provide the governor with the authority to take specific, swift actions determined necessary to protect the safety and health of residents in the state, including the temporary suspension of certain state laws and regulations. The Office of the Governor is compiling and evaluating specific recommendations from agencies and municipalities about statutes or regulations that should be suspended or modified and the governor may issue related orders in the near future."

Mead continues to monitor the national, state and local decisions that are unfolding and assess how those decisions impact our School.

DISTANCE LEARNING:

While we hope that we will not have to resort to distance learning due to a forced school closure, we are actively putting policies and strategies into place as a precaution. In addition to our Friday, March 13 planning/work session, we have already been actively working to prepare lessons, gather materials, and create new processes to engage K-8 students remotely. We will be communicating a more detailed plan at week's end. On Thursday, we will ask students to bring home their books, binders, art sketchbooks, musical instruments, and any other materials deemed necessary, in the event the situation deteriorates during break.

FIELD TRIPS:

Effective immediately, we have suspended off-campus field trips. We will be making a determination about the 6th grade Marine Science trip in May, by week's end.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT:

We have also suspended off-campus professional development until further notice. Luckily, PD for educators is often conducted via webinars, which still permits our teachers to participate in additional learning.

This is a fluid and challenging situation and we will continue to provide updates as events unfold. If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me or your Home Center Director. Thank you for your partnership in helping us keep our community healthy and safe.

My sincere and kind regards,

Stephanie Whitney

Head of School