2021-22 Health and Safety Plan

Health and Safety checks will be conducted daily. Prior to leaving for school you will need to check your child’s temperature and  answer the COVID screening questions in the Magnus App. Make sure your child’s temperature is below 99.4 degrees and you are able to answer NO to all the questions listed. If you have to answer YES or your child has a temperature of 99.4 or above, please stay home. Contact our School Health Office to inform us. All children must be fever and symptom free without medication for 24 hours before returning to school.

We are returning to our traditional full time, 5 day a week schedule for in-person learning. Elementary and Middle School programs begin with two half days. Primary and Toddler programs begin with a phase in week. 

Upon arrival at school, our school nurses and other staff will be outside waiting for you. They will check the status of your Magnus App.  Additional temperature checks will be done during periods of locally high transmissibility and at the school’s discretion. 

Lower Elementary, Upper Elementary, and Middle School- Please use the car line and have students remain in the car until a staff member has checked your Magnus App. Each program will have specific arrival and dismissal doors. The car line should also be used for dismissal. If you have children in another program level, please park and stand on the island.  A staff member will walk your children to you.

Primary and Kindergarten- Please park your vehicle and walk your children to the designated doors for their classrooms. At dismissal, please park and walk to the designated doors to pick up your children.  Adequate distancing should be maintained during the drop off and pick up procedures. Please return directly to your vehicle after pick up.

Toddler- Please park your vehicle and walk the children to the classroom door. A teacher will greet you at the door and invite you inside during phase-in week. Dismissal will also take place from the classroom door.

The playground will not be available after school. The equipment is disinfected between cohorts during the school day. It is helpful for students to experience consistency with staying in cohorts at all times when they are on campus.

The Village School will transition to a mask optional policy during times of low and moderate COVID activity level for Northern NJ on the NJDOH scale. We will return to universal masking if the activity level rises to high or very high levels and during outbreaks in our school community.

Week of March 7: Masks will be optional outside, and still required inside. The purpose of this transitional week is to allow a full 14 days after mid-winter break, when many families traveled and/or participated in higher risk activities.

Week of March 14: Masks will be optional inside when in your cohort, and required when crossing into other cohorts.

The administration will continue to monitor the cases in our school community, as well as in our region, and modify the mask policy as needed.

Updated 3/2/2022

We won’t be shaking hands this year, however we will greet each other with a wave or bow.

We have hand sanitizer stations at each entrance. Children will be asked to sanitize their hands immediately before proceeding to their classrooms. Upon reaching their classrooms, students will be directed to put their belongings away and wash their hands.

Handwashing will occur frequently. Students will wash their hands:

• Whenever entering the classroom
• Before and after meals and snacks
• After going to the bathroom
• After blowing nose, sneezing, or coughing
• When hands are visibly soiled
• Before and after recess
• Before leaving for the day
   

The classrooms have been prepared to allow 3 feet of space between students. Plastic screens will be used indoors when masks are removed during snack and lunch, 

Our upgraded HVAC system has been regularly serviced, and we continue to have circulation of fresh air through window screens. Portable air purifiers supplement ventilation in high use areas of the building.
 

Cohorts will be defined by program level. Classes on the same program level can share the playground and interact between classrooms. Different cohorts may share common rooms, one at a time.  Adults, such as specials teachers, substitutes, and educational visitors may interact with multiple cohort groups.

Upper Elementary and Middle School students will use individual lockers this year.

We will eat outside whenever possible, weather permitting.

Students will be able to remove their masks for water breaks. These breaks will take place at a specified area of the classroom.

Students may bring a healthy, simple to eat, and easy to dispose of snack to school each day. They may enjoy their snack outside or in a specially designated area of the classroom where they may safely and briefly remove their mask to eat their snack. Since time and space is limited, we stress that it is important for students to have a healthy and sustaining breakfast before coming to school. All snacks must comply with the school snack policy. Students must be able to manage their snack and clean up independently.

Physical distancing will be maximized when indoor lunch is necessary. Plastic shields will be used as an added layer of protection during periods of high and very high transmission.

We plan to resume Lunch Orders later this Fall.

Updated 3/2/2022

Cleaning and disinfecting routines will include frequent cleaning of common areas and high-touch surfaces throughout the day. Shared materials will be disinfected at the end of each day. 

Any child who exhibits signs of illness during the day will be evaluated by a school nurse. If the child exhibits a fever or other signs of illness, a parent will be called to pick the child up. The child will remain in the Health  Annex, isolated from others, until a parent can arrive. Parents are asked to ensure they have someone on their contact list that can be at the school to pick up within one hour.

We will follow the most recent recommendations from the NJDOH, the CDC, and local health department guidelines for quarantining and close contacts. This information is updated frequently. The most recent guidance states the following: 

• Ill individuals with COVID-19 compatible symptoms who have not been tested or individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 should stay home until at least 5 days have passed since symptom onset and at least 24 hours have passed after resolution of fever without fever reducing medications and improvement in symptoms. 
• Persons who test positive for COVID-19 but who are asymptomatic should stay home for 5 days from the positive test result or first day of symptoms. You may return to school on day 6 with no remaining symptoms. You must mask consistently and properly indoors and outdoors for days 6-10.
• Close contacts quarantine requirements vary according to vaccination status.
  - Fully vaccinated, including the booster if eligible: You do not need to quarantine. You can continue attending school, consistently and properly masking indoors and outdoors for 10 days. You should get tested on day 5 of exposure.
  - Unvaccinated, and not fully up to date: You need to quarantine for 5 days, and take a test on day 5. You may return to school on day 6, consistently and properly masking indoors and outdoors for 10 days.
• In the classroom setting, close contacts exclude those within 3-6 feet of an infected student when both the infected student and the exposed student consistently wore their masks. As we transition to a mask optional policy, we can no longer use this exemption. All students in the cohort will be considered close contacts.

Beginning March 7, remote instruction will only be offered to students on quarantine for testing positive or for being a close contact through a Village School exposure. For students who are absent awaiting test results, quarantining for an outside of school exposure, or following travel, will not have live instruction. Work will be sent home, if appropriate for the program level.

Students may return to school on day 6 if: 

• They are fever free without medication for at least 24 hours 

• Other symptoms have improved 

• A dry, well–fitted mask is consistently worn properly over mouth and nose  

• Extended distance is maintained during lunch, snack, and mask breaks for days 6-10 

For students who are quarantining, remote instruction will be offered after 24 hours of notification to the extent appropriate for the program level. Learning will be supported with a combination of assigned work and Google Meet check ins with the teacher and class. Remote instruction will not be provided during trips scheduled on days school is open. It will  be provided during the quarantine period after the trip. Please notify teachers as soon as you know your child will be out and need remote instruction so that they have adequate time to prepare materials for remote instruction. 

updated 3/2/2022

Domestic Travel for Unvaccinated Individuals: 
We will not require a quarantine period, but will require testing to return and stay in school during the week post travel. A negative test is required within 24 hours of return from travel and 3-5 days after return. Additional testing would be indicated should symptoms appear. The school will accept a home test, rapid lab test, or pcr test as long as test results are received in accordance with the schedule noted.  

Those participating in high-risk travel, including using public transportation, staying in a resort, lodging with individuals outside of the household, and visiting places where large groups gather are encouraged to assess their risk of exposure. A quarantine and/or increased testing should be strongly considered in these cases.  

Domestic Travel for Vaccinated Individuals:  

Those who are fully vaccinated have no quarantine or testing requirements for domestic travel. Fully vaccinated is defined as receiving the second shot of the Pfizer vaccine between 2 weeks and 5 months ago. After 5 months, a booster is necessary to be considered up to date with vaccination. Please confirm that the immunization cards have been filed with the Health Office PRIOR to travel.  

Those participating in high-risk travel, including using public transportation, staying in a resort, lodging with individuals outside of the household, and visiting places where large groups gather are encouraged to assess their risk of exposure. Testing should be considered in these cases.  

Please confirm that the immunization cards have been filed with the health office PRIOR to travel. ALL vaccine cards need to be loaded into Magnus immunizations for all students, regardless of travel. 

International Travel for Unvaccinated Individuals:  

We require a quarantine period of 5 days with a negative test on day 5, and return to school on day 6. Otherwise, the quarantine period without testing would be 10 days, with a return on day 11. Additional testing would be indicated should symptoms appear. The school will accept a home test, rapid lab test, or pcr test as long as test results are received in accordance with the schedule noted.  

International Travel for Vaccinated Individuals:  
Those who are fully vaccinated have no quarantine period for international travel. Students may return to school immediately, and will need to test on day 5 of return. Fully vaccinated is defined as receiving the second shot of the Pfizer vaccine between 2 weeks and 5 months ago. After 5 months, a booster is necessary to be considered up to date with vaccination. Please confirm that the immunization cards have been filed with the Health Office PRIOR to travel. The school will accept a home test, rapid lab test, or pcr test as long as test results are received in accordance with the schedule noted.  

For students who are quarantining, remote instruction will be offered after 24 hours of notification to the extent appropriate for the program level. Learning will be supported with a combination of assigned work and Google Meet check ins with the teacher and class. Remote instruction will not be provided during trips scheduled on days school is open. It will  be provided during the quarantine period after the trip. Please notify teachers as soon as you know your child will be out and need remote instruction so that they have adequate time to prepare materials for remote instruction. 

For students traveling internationally, please confirm that the immunization cards have been filed with the health office PRIOR to travel. ALL vaccine cards need to be loaded into Magnus immunizations for all students, regardless of travel. 

The school will be limiting all visitors to the school in an effort to reduce the possibility of inadvertent spread of the Covid virus. Appointments will be necessary. We look forward to parent observations returning at a later date,

Orientation Day will be held on September 12. Families will be scheduled for a specific time that day to ensure adequate spacing in the classrooms.

Back to School Night will be held virtually on September 22. 

The school will require PCR testing of students and staff intermittently. Returns from school breaks and times of high community transmission are likely times for required testing. The school is finalizing details of Back to School testing.

The Governor has mandated that all PreK-12th grade school staff either be vaccinated by October 18th or that staff be tested at least once per week. Currently 94% of our faculty and staff are fully vaccinated. Any remaining staff who are not vaccinated, due to exemption requests, are required to test twice a week.

Currently, students age 5 and up are eligible for vaccination and students 12 and up are eligible for a booster. Please upload vaccination cards to the Magnus App. It is important that the Health Office has vaccination information, as it impacts quarantine requirements.

Updated 3/2/2022

Before and After Care will begin September 13 for the Elementary and Middle School classes and September 20 for Primary and Kindergarten. Due to physical distancing requirements, space is limited.

Field trips are not planned for the Fall semester. We hope they will resume in the Spring. 

We look forward to the return of enrichment activities, but are holding off on starting them right away. It is likely that activities taught/coached by Village School staff will begin before activities taught by outside instructors.

Music ensembles will return this Fall for the Upper Elementary cohort and the Middle School cohort. Instrumental ensembles will be composed of string and percussion instruments initially.  We look forward to adding wind and brass instruments at a later time.