Keeping Atrium Safe
November 16
Dear Atrium Families,
With Thanksgiving approaching, I want to wish you the very best for this brief holiday break, and update you on safety steps in our building. Let’s also take a moment to refresh community health and safety guidelines. We all have an essential role in keeping Atrium safe!
Last month I wrote to you, and reiterate: I strongly discourage you from travelling beyond the states deemed lower-risk by Massachusetts standards. This list of lower-risk states has narrowed sharply in recent days. Close visits with friends and relatives beyond your “bubble” now brings increased risk of COVID transmission. We all dearly miss our loved ones, but the alarming spread of COVID at small gatherings must give us pause. A few moments of lapsed care can take a profound toll on family health and our teachers’ health. We’ve had such a successful fall at Atrium; your diligence and care must continue if we are to thrive in our face-to-face model into early winter.
If you have no choice but to travel to and from a higher-risk state, any Atrium community member must follow all updated and evolving state protocols. These include:
Upon return, each family member who travelled must be PCR-tested with a negative result before a child can return to school, or you must observe the state-required 14-day quarantine. Atrium will request documentation of the test results. Please note that demand is once again rising, and testing may not be easily available.
Consistent with recent contact tracing guidelines: were a student to even be exposed to someone who is positive for Covid-19, the exposed student must quarantine and learn remotely for a minimum of two weeks, regardless of test results.
Finally, and as I’m sure you understand, choosing to travel and then requesting remote instruction upon return places a powerful stress upon faculty, who have restricted their own family plans for the sake of students, as well as the entire Atrium community.
Our preparations for a safer return to school after Thanksgiving continue, though this return depends on both the actions of our Atrium community and also the wider community. We have extensively researched air quality strategies, and continue to refine our facilities management.
Recently, our air quality assessment firm returned to retest our building interior. The short story: our air quality continues to be excellent. CO2 levels around the building were even lower than the August testing, as a result of open windows.
Our HVAC systems and boilers have all been re-tested, and system filters have been upgraded to the industry-standard MERV-13 level.
Fresh air flow is key, and so classroom and hallway windows will remain ajar during the day. Each room will be equipped with a small CO2 monitor. This metric gives teachers clear and easy-to-interpret info about fresh air exchange, and empowers simple and immediate adjustment steps.
From time to time outside school hours, we will also flush the full building by opening doors and the large Atrium Space door.
We are also refining our teaching practices for evolving conditions, and so professional development support for our faculty continues. Kathy Hanson is working with OunceIT and others to support both digital learning and emotional well-being at school; I am working with the Massachusetts Audubon Society to develop teacher training sessions to grow our capacity for winter outdoor teaching techniques.
We continue, every day, to look at more ways to help school be safer. We've been successful so far because of everyone's ingenuity, commitment to safety, resilience and spirit. If you have ideas, insights, and resources please bring them forward – I welcome your input!
Warmly (even with windows open),
Marshall