HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE YEAR MAKING OUR CAMPUS SAFER Alfonso de la Torre is EB’s Facilities Manager and has more than fifteen years of experience in grounds, landscape, and building maintenance and project management in various Bay Area companies and organizations. During his career, Alfonso has overseen many construction projects and has been an Operations Manager and an Account Manager for landscape and construction companies. Alfonso is fully bilingual in English and Spanish, and holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice with an option in Law Enforcement.
Keeping these kids safe has been a challenge, but still crucially important. Not only do we consider the security of our students—making sure visitors on campus have been screened, which has been a priority for many years—but now with the continued spread of COVID, we need to make sure that their health is a priority as well. We don’t want the kids to get sick and possibly increase infection, especially with the environment that’s going on right now. We’ve been working on making our campus safe and keeping everyone together, learning.
learning. For the home learning cohorts, we added a lot of technology in the classroom, like projectors and screens, so that teachers could simultaneously teach in the classroom while accommodating our students at home. We were fortunate to offer PCR testing through Curative after each break during the academic year. When COVID cases were high in the county, we were able to test our community twice a week, and when numbers were dropping again, we were still testing once a week. For the students, we did antigen testing twice a week and teachers were obligated to do PCR testing twice a week, when cases were high. We have been pretty successful with our testing measures and protocols!
What have you been doing to keep the campus safe for everybody?
Is there anything you are hopeful about in the future?
Why is safety such an important value to EB, especially these past few years?
One major structural improvement was that we redesigned our ventilation system. We installed MERV 13 air filters, which purify air-borne diseases and smoke particles. We also installed UVC lights in our filtration systems to kill any bacteria in the air. We added one-way traffic signs in the hallways and put in safety barriers in classrooms to create smaller pods and to keep students safe while optimizing 12
ECOLE BILINGUE DE BERKELEY
I’m super excited that social distancing has pushed us in a good direction, so in the 2021–2022 school year, we are able to have more students mingling with one another. Of course, we’ll still have the classrooms divided, but each grade level will be able to interact with one another, rather than sticking to their specific pod. Hopefully things will continue to improve!
