Embracing a Culture of Care During a Pandemic

Today more than ever we are focused on fostering a sense of security, care, and belonging for our students and their families. Here are a few of our strategies for maintaining a safe environment that continues encouraging our students to thrive:

HYGIENE AND PREVENTION

All staff and students have participated in trainings and updates on important behaviors and skills including social distancing, hand hygiene, and mask wearing. We celebrate students who work hard to maintain good mask wearing with a weekly Mask Master recognition.

Outdoor handwashing stations have been installed around campus along with signs and visual cues to remind everyone about best practices.

Students participate in wellness screenings twice a day. Staff members participate in screenings upon arrival to work, in addition to the daily wellness and activity screening they complete via the LiveSafe app.

New enrollees are carefully screened and required to quarantine prior to joining our community.

We have increased the size of our housekeeping staff and the frequency with which they clean, as well as adapting new cleaning protocols.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES

Each student has been provided a Chromebook for schoolwork, reducing the amount of equipment shared across students.

Every student and teacher desk has been outfitted with Plexiglas partitions. New outdoor learning spaces have been created.

We have implemented a new visitation policy so that our parents are partners in keeping everyone safe.

PREPAREDNESS

We have hired additional staff in both the academic and residential settings and retained professionals who can step in to support our clinical team in case any of them falls ill.

We have been stockpiling personal protective equipment and diversifying our supply chain so that we can meet the needs of our community without interruption. These are just a few of the dozens of changes we have made to our daily routine, which are proving to be workable and sustainable. Students and staff are working together to make everyone safe. We know this is a long commitment, but we are in it together.