Boarding school COVID discussion 2022

Prep School Admissions
62

PEA will resume in person on Thursday. Everyone needs to identify an adult who can get to school within 24 hrs of notification. My guess is the kids tested positive will be asked to go home or stay in a hotel.

63

So, that thinking says to me that they don’t trust the negative test, and think it’s ok to send possibly contagious kids on airplanes to potentially infect hundreds?

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64

I’m pretty unhappy to hear about BS sending home students who are close contacts but test negative home. For me it’s a big strike since it points to a rigid school management that will still be there post-covid. Who else is doing this besides Groton and PEA?

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65

Groton absolutely has a rigid school management. Aka the headmaster who is 100% in control. However, this has also worked in favor of students. For instance, last year Groton was one of the few schools in MA that was 100% in person with teachers all teaching in person and day students allowed to attend school. That was also the headmasters rigidity.

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66

I have not heard of my son’s school sending contacts with a negative test home. They have asked that everyone have a place to go “within driving distance” (family or host etc. and they sent a link to a “hosting service” which a family can pay for which will chaperone a student in a hotel setting) so they seem to acknowledge that students should not be flying if they are covid positive.

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67

If Deerfield sent every close contact home, then the campus would be a ghost town!

Apparently athletic competition against other schools is going ahead on Wednesday but only for those kids who have not been close contacted in the last 5 days. I’m thinking that the few games on the calendar may well get canceled for lack of athletes!

DA positive cases can even stay on campus if they don’t have a relative/friend within driving distance to shelter them. They get to stay in the annex of the local inn.

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68

I find the close contacts rule to be odd—Lawrenceville only makes unvaccinated people quarantine, if you’re vaccinated then you’re free to roam (mask rules are universal anyways).

Also, just like MacJackAttack said, our campus would have maybe 5 people left if every close contact went home.

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69

1/3 of my son’s class has been sent home.

70

I’m guessing the dashboard isn’t up to date?? We are thankful that Kiddo1’s most recent test was negative. Keeping our fingers crossed that she remains negative and that cases slow down soon. We really want all schools to continue with in person learning.

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71

Same for Hotchkiss, starting up this Thursday after a one week delay.

72

So my kiddo sent me a picture of her throat and it had white patches all over it. Strep. PCR Covid was negative. She has been tested about 5 times since arrival (close contact 3 separate times), fully masked except to eat and in room. Never had strep in her life. How in the heck did she get strep? I give up :rofl:

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73

Reading all of this with interest, as Cate students returned yesterday, first day of classes was today. I think their onboarding policy is based on what the East Coast schools experienced. I think they said there was a 5-10% positivity rate in other schools?

I have no idea what the rate is at Cate, but they are very rigid with testing and quarantining. I know they are also following the local health officials’ requirements, and being California that is quite strict.

The data on false negatives for home tests is looking significant- so I can understand not letting known close contact/negative result kids travel to school, even if negative. But once a kid makes it to campus, they shouldn’t send them home on a plane. That’s nuts.

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74

I’ve heard of way more cases through word-of-mouth than there have been officially reported. I think they might have stopped reporting pre-arrival tests, as there’s a huge contingent of day students that didn’t come in today.

In other news, they still haven’t told us day students who tested on campus back on Thursday about our results
for all we know there’s probably a load of positive people who went to classes, ate in the dining hall, etc. today
 (the policy was basically "if you’re asymptomatic come in, if you’re symptomatic don’t).

75

Test results are definitely taking longer than normal, but Thursday results should be back!! Kiddo1 tested Friday and received her result this afternoon. And I think you’re right about pre-arrival testing, they’ve also changed the wording on the dashboard several times.

76

Kiddo’s school apparently has a machine that does PCR in 45 minutes.

77

Ours does as well, but I believe it’s only used for suspected symptomatic cases. It’s more practical to do surveillance testing with group saliva.

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78

So many vaccinated people including some already had third shot got covid these days. It’s beyond my belief they are still treating the vaccinated and unvaccinated differently.

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79

That is not true
 Kids tested positive need someone to come over and stay with them in the hotels PEA has secured.

80

PEA is not sending close contacts home if they test negative. Students must have a designated adult to pick them up within 24 hours if they test positive (and as has been mentioned, they have hotel rooms reserved for those students/adults to stay). My kids just got out of the health center after testing positive and I feel lucky in a way that they got it before this policy was enacted because we are a 14-hour drive away and the nearest airport with a direct flight is almost 3 hours away.

81

So what did I say that is not true?