Winter Plans

It’s hard to believe that the end of our first term of the year is rapidly approaching. As we get closer to the new year, many families have asked questions about what next term might look like.

First of all, our Covid-19 Risk Management and Community Plan will guide our decision making process. That document continues to evolve. For winter term we anticipate a few minor changes. The most significant change is that we are increasing the maximum size of a cohort to twelve students. This change will allow for greater flexibility around where students are seated and make it far easier for us to organize activities outside of the school. We feel confident in this change based upon the adherence to policy that students have demonstrated over the course of this term and our increased confidence that the measures we have implemented are effective. This change will be paired with a slight change to the varieties of masks that we allow as face coverings. We will no longer accept gaiter style masks or anything with a drape that does not clearly indicate full enclosure of nose and mouth. Please contact Bacchus if you have any questions or concerns about these changes.

Assuming the numbers in Whatcom County continue as they currently stand, we will move forward similarly to what this term looked like with two days per week dedicated to in-person classes, two days dedicated to online learning, and one day of in-person field-based instruction. That being said, we anticipate that rates of infection are likely to increase over the holiday season. In the event that the community spread increases, we may be required to open under the red zone plan specified in the plan. We ask that all families do their part over the holiday season to minimize the risk of transmission. Furthermore, we have decided to have the first week of the term be fully online. The decision was based upon the anticipated spike in numbers associated with the new year and the ease of accessing test sites before students return to in-person instruction. Similar to this term, we will require covid testing in the week before students return to school on January 11h.

As for the content of classes starting in January, teachers are finalizing plans, and we expect to have options available for families by the Thanksgiving Holiday. We want to stress that we may need to be more flexible than normal in terms of shifting content and modality. Nonetheless, teachers are hard at work coming up with plenty of contingency plans as we do our best to respond to the ongoing pandemic.

Looking forward to another successful term,

J. Bacchus Taylor

Head of School