August 19, 2020
Dear Frederick Gunn School Students and Parents,
Thank you to those of you who joined our Town Hall Meeting on August 12 via Zoom. If you were not able to join in person, I invite you to view the recording here. We covered quite a bit of information in one hour, and answered many of the questions that were received in advance of the meeting as well as questions that some of you shared with us that evening. In this communication, we are not announcing any major changes to the Campus Reopening Plan. Rather, we are seeking to clarify a few things that were discussed last week and provide additional details in anticipation of our return to campus in just a few weeks. If you have not already done so, I encourage you to review the updated Campus Reopening Plan from August 7, and the Back-to-School Guide on our website.
We take some level of prudent encouragement from the fact that some of our peer schools began to welcome both faculty and students this week. All schools are sharing information on reopening with each other in the interest of learning and best practices. As national news continues to vacillate, regional and local news is positive. We know there will be zigs and zags ahead. We will keep you informed along the way and welcome your questions. We are truly all in this together and it is in that spirit that we will safely gather in person and remotely very soon.
Sincerely,
Peter Becker
Head of School
Returning to Campus
We are reminding families that they should review the State of Connecticut’s Travel Advisory List every Tuesday for changes to the affected states on the list. Each week, states are being added and removed from the list. Anyone traveling from one of the identified states is mandated by the State of Connecticut to complete a travel health form upon arrival. Travelers can fill out the form online at this link. The State of Connecticut’s policies associated with the Travel Advisory List have not changed since our August 7 update, and we are following it closely and will adjust accordingly to any changes made by the state.
Health and Safety
Medical Expert Town Hall
All parents, students and faculty are invited to join a Town Hall Meeting on Monday, August 24 at 7:00 PM EDT, featuring Helen W. Boucher, MD, FACP, FIDSA, an internationally-renowned expert on antimicrobial resistance, and Chief of the Division of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. Dr. Boucher has consulted with the school as we have finalized our Campus Reopening Plan. This Zoom webinar is being offered to address health and safety-related questions about returning to school this fall. To submit your questions in advance of the forum, please use this form.
Experiencing Symptoms
Day students should not come to school if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms and no boarding students should leave their rooms if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms. Boarding students should contact healthdept@frederickgunn.org if they are experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
Pre-arrival Testing
There have been no changes to our pre-arrival testing policy since the August 7 Campus Reopening Plan was announced. As a reminder, all students, faculty and staff will be required to have a negative COVID-19 PCR test within 10 days of returning to campus. Antigen tests will not satisfy this requirement. Test results must be emailed to our Health and Wellness team at healthdept@frederickgunn.org prior to arrival. Please check your email later this week for a letter from our Health Center with information about how to locate a testing center near you as well as the requisition form from our school physician and a list of Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 testing.
If Your Student Previously Had COVID-19
A previous case of COVID-19 can result in a positive test result for individuals, even if the patient is fully recovered. If your student is in this situation, please contact healthdept@frederickgunn.org.
Pre-arrival Quiet Period
We ask that all families and all school employees adhere to a 14-day quiet period prior to returning to campus. Specifically, we ask that all individuals planning to join our campus in the fall be prudent and discerning in their travel and social interactions in the 14 days prior to returning to campus in an effort to minimize potential exposure to symptomatic and asymptomatic COVID-19 individuals. If a student has participated in large gatherings within 14 days of returning to campus, particularly where social distancing was not practical, we ask that the student delay returning to campus until 14 consecutive quiet period days can be accomplished. Additionally, any student experiencing COVID-19 symptoms as defined by the CDC should also delay returning to campus.
Guardian Requirements
Consistent with our Guardian Requirements outlined in our August 7 Campus Reopening Plan, we will require that all students attending in-person classes identify a guardian available to pick them up within 12 hours of testing positive for COVID-19. Guardians will also need to be available within 12 hours if a student is presenting symptoms of COVID-19 and awaiting test results or if the school is shut down. We also recommend that a guardian pick up a student if a 14-day quarantine is recommended as a result of contact tracing. Guardian requirements do not apply to students who are participating via our distance learning program.
Four Level Approach
The school will use a four-level approach to guide health and safety protocols as of August 24, when faculty begin to return to campus. The school will assume a Level 2 assessment as of August 24 based on the current assumption that there are no COVID-19 cases on campus, while simultaneously assuming increased transmission within the local area. As of this writing, this is a conservative assumption given that current transmission of the virus in our local area is low. Details of the various levels can be found in the below chart.
Student Life
Student Academic Schedule
Our students will be able to view their academic courses and blocks on Highlander Nation beginning at noon August 20th. New students who have not yet signed into Highlander Nation can do so using their Frederick Gunn School email/password with @gunnery.org rather than @frederickgunn.org. Students can find the course list and blocks in “Progress” under “My Day.” Course selections will not be changed by the school unless an add / drop request is made by a student. However, block assignments are subject to change as the Academic Office works to maintain a balanced number of students in each class, a challenge this year as some students opt out of in-person classes and into Gunn Global Online. If a student’s course list is not correct or a student would like to request a course change, please email academics@frederickgunn.org. Note this is for course changes only, please do not reach out to request teacher or block changes.
Winterim
The start of our Winterim program has been adjusted from November 30 to December 1.
Online Textbook Ordering
The Frederick Gunn School has partnered with the Higher Learning Supply Company to streamline the purchase of all textbooks and required reading for the 2020-21 academic year. All students, whether participating in-person or remotely, will order textbooks through the Frederick Gunn School Bookstore once you receive your class schedule. At checkout, you will be asked to enter your contact information and shipping address. When you click “continue to shipping” the shipping method will default to “Items will not be shipped; in-store pickup.” Parents of day students and Gunn Global Online students, please ignore this. Once your order is completed, you will receive a confirmation from the bookstore via email with a web order number. Please reply to info@frederickgunnbookstore.com with your order number and indicate that your books should be shipped to your student’s home address (see Delivery of Textbooks to Day Students and Gunn Global Online Students below).
Delivery of Textbooks to Boarding Students
Higher Learning Supply Company will distribute pre-ordered textbooks to boarding students on September 11 at a designated location on campus. Students will be assigned individual pick-up times by the Dean of Students Office. This information will be provided at Orientation.
Delivery of Textbooks to Day Students
To help reduce the density of students and parents on campus during the drop-off period, we will be unable to have day students picking up books on September 11. As such, we ask that day students email info@frederickgunnbookstore.com with your order number, state that you are a day student and need your books shipped, and ask to have your textbooks delivered to your home address.
Delivery of Textbooks to Gunn Global Online Students
Upon completion of a textbook order, distance learning students will receive an order confirmation number from the online bookstore. Please reply to info@frederickgunnbookstore.com with your order number, state that you are a distance learner and need your books shipped and ask to have your textbooks delivered to your home address.
Change in Student Status
If your student was planning to return to campus in September and has now elected to begin the year on our Gunn Global Online platform, we ask that your family contact info@frederickgunnbookstore.com to make arrangements to have textbooks delivered to your student’s home address.
Gunn Global Online
We understand that families may elect to transition from in-person classes to our online platform following our recent deadline of August 14. We would note that such changes affect our academic schedules and overall planning initiatives, and as a result we ask that such updates be provided to admissions@frederickgunn.org as soon as possible.
Fall Co-Curriculars
For this fall term, each student will be asked to sign up for two co-curricular offerings. Indicating your preference here does not lock you into that choice but we would like to know a bit about your interest. You will notice that we aren’t offering levels (Varsity or JV, etc.) in sports this fall. Not offering levels was an intentional decision to accommodate student interest and expand sports rosters to allow for intramural games when we are able. The 3-2-1 plan will also allow for fall sports teams to pivot and play interscholastic games when the state’s health and safety protocols allow us to do so.
The “3” = Traditional fall offerings will meet on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
The “2” = The secondary offerings will meet on Tuesday and Thursday.
The “1” = Saturdays are designated for intramural contests for the fall sports teams (soccer, football, field hockey, etc.). For non-interscholastic sports offerings, these programs will meet as a group or support the teams playing intramural sports when we are able. We expect to start intramurals in mid-October. All intramural contests will be played here on campus in the early afternoon.
Please note that offerings are not final and may shift due to enrollment.
Parent Visitation Policy
Parents of day students should remain in their vehicles while on campus and should use the designated location off Kirby Road for during pick-up and drop-off. After the initial drop-off, parents of boarding students who are on-campus to pick up or drop off students should remain in their vehicles. In September, we ask that parents not have extended visits on campus. When parents are permitted to visit campus, those visits should occur in outdoor spaces. In the interest of community health, parents should not enter any indoor spaces including dorms beyond the initial drop-off to campus. Parents are permitted to take their child out for a meal, even during September. Parents may not take children other than their own off campus.
Form Reminders
The beginning of any school year is always filled with paperwork requirements, and not only is the 2020-21 academic year no exception, it is actually requiring additional forms to be completed due to the complexities of the global pandemic. We appreciate your continued understanding of these requests and hope that this list of required forms will serve as a helpful reminder:.
