11/5/20

Dear Friends,

It has been an enormous joy to be on campus with your children! We are in the fourth week of a vibrant in-person learning experience in Middle and Lower Schools, and the second week of the same in Upper School. Even as we support many students learning from home, we are uplifted by the positive energy of young people learning and growing right here on campus. We remain committed to on-campus learning. Indeed, we are encouraged by public health data indicating that mitigation strategies like ours are effective in schools, and the coronavirus does not tend to spread within school communities.

However, we are seeing a pandemic surge across the country, including rising incidence rates and positivity rates in our local area. Our whole community should be concerned about this. These trends, if they continue, may threaten Westtown's ability to stay open. We are relying on all Westonians to make scrupulously responsible decisions, so that we can continue with on-campus learning. Everyone needs to do their part to "flatten the curve" for the sake of keeping our school — and others — open. If we work together, we can stay on campus!

Make prudent choices this Thanksgiving Break

Friends, please make responsible choices regarding your family's plan for Thanksgiving Break. Remember:

Westtown will have a condensed Thanksgiving Break starting at 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, November 25 through Thursday and Friday, November 26-27 only.
For the sake of our community's health, please plan for a safe celebration. Please see these CDC guidelines and Chester County Health Department guidelines for safe celebration of Thanksgiving and other holidays. Because this holiday is about sharing a meal together, masks will have to come off — so please plan celebrations only with members of your own household. If any other people are involved in your plans, please stay outdoors. We strongly discourage Westtown families from traveling over Thanksgiving Break.
If your family decides to engage in an activity that the CDC has deemed high risk, like travel, indoor dining, or gathering with friends or family outside of your household unit, your child must quarantine for 14 days before returning to campus. Our shortened break means that friends who engage in activities which might expose them to COVID-19 may have to engage in remote learning after Thanksgiving until the risk to others has passed.
If you are unsure if your planned activity could prevent you from returning to campus, please contact pandemic_support@westtown.edu.
Boarders who go home for Thanksgiving Break must remain at home for the rest of the semester. Boarding students who live at a distance are encouraged to remain on dorm. All boarding students should by now have communicated their travel plans to T. Whitney.

Partner with us about off-campus congregate activities

In addition, please remember that we expect to hear from parents if their children are participating in off-campus congregate activities like club sports, so we can partner with you to ensure appropriate safeguards and next steps. In particular, public health data indicate that while sports themselves are low-risk, there are high-risk activities associated with club or travel sports teams — for example, gathering on the sidelines without masks, group transportation, and group dinners. It is imperative that our student athletes avoid such behaviors. Students must remember to put on masks immediately following any practice or play, refrain from dining indoors, and avoid group transportation.

Avoid social activities and be responsible

Finally, Westtown families are asked to prioritize school over social activities. While we all look forward to a return to normalcy, when children can safely host or attend sleepovers and other parties, friends can chat together at Wawa or on a bench without masks, and indoor shopping and dining are again part of our routines, this is not the time to return to such activities. For the sake of Westtown's ability to continue to operate on campus, we urge you please to refrain from hosting or attending parties, dining indoors outside of your family unit, and other unsafe behaviors. Please observe physical distancing, wash hands frequently — and above all, wear masks at all times.

Our faculty and staff have relished these past few weeks of in-person learning with students. We know that families whose children are on campus have been enjoying this as much as we have. Thank you for your diligence and partnership in flattening the curve, so that the Westtown School community can stay together!

Yours,