Dear Friends,

I hope that this finds you and your families well, having enjoyed happy winter holidays, and looking forward to ringing out 2020 in a few hours, at long last. I have every confidence that 2021 will bring more light, more ease, more togetherness, and more joy.

However, the year will begin with challenges, perhaps even more acute than the challenges we contended with in the fall. Over the winter break, Westtown administrators and teachers have kept ourselves apprised of developments in the pandemic. We have met to discuss what we are seeing and what lies ahead. In view of a number of factors, we have regretfully but concertedly decided that it will be best for our community to pursue the following course of action:

Lower School will return to campus as planned on Monday, January 11.
Upper and Middle School will begin the Spring Semester with two weeks of Westtown Distance Learning (WDL). Upper and Middle School students should expect to resume on-campus learning on Monday, January 25.
Boarding students with permission to live on campus this semester may move on dorm as scheduled, and engage with their online classes from campus.
On-campus co-curriculars in Upper School will resume along with on-campus learning on Monday, January 25, except that winter season varsity teams may practice on campus starting January 11.
Return-to-campus testing dates will be adjusted accordingly, depending on a student's division.

Please read on for further details and thoughts about these decisions.

Upper and Middle School will begin the semester with two weeks of WDL, while Lower School will begin the semester on campus.

We have elected to begin the semester online in our Upper and Middle School divisions, on account of the persistent high rates in our area and the expected increase in cases following the winter holidays. As you know, our decision to take these two divisions online for the final week of the Fall Semester coincided with the post-Thanksgiving peak, which in turn led to insuperable staffing challenges. Although rates in Chester and Delaware Counties and across our state have declined since then, they are still concerningly high; furthermore, experts say that the current numbers may be misleading due to lower testing and less rigorous data reporting during the holidays. More importantly, we have long been told by experts to expect another post-holiday peak in mid-January.

As was true in the summer, my colleagues and I are confounded and frustrated by the need to make decisions on an adequate timeline for future planning, without as much information as we would like. We cannot know for certain whether there will indeed be a winter holiday surge, as predicted. We wish we could wait and make this decision a little later. However, it is necessary to make this decision now so that boarding students may yet choose to stay home for two more weeks if they prefer, and so that we can adjust our plans for return-to-campus testing.

We have chosen to take a different approach in our Lower School for a number of reasons. For one thing, we are able to take the strongest approach to risk mitigation in our Lower School. Lower School students go about their day in very small, distinct cohorts, with constant supervision, in a building with some of our strongest air quality supports in place. At the same time, our youngest students have the hardest time with distance learning. While distance learning cannot compare to the full on-campus Westtown experience for all Westonians, and we hope that the first two weeks of the Spring Semester will be the last time we will have to use WDL for any students, we have invested heavily in ensuring that our Lower School students can be on campus with significantly mitigated risk even at the most difficult of times.

Boarding students may move back on dorm as scheduled, or they may also choose to delay returning to campus.

For those students with permission from T. Veda to board, you may continue to plan on moving in as previously scheduled. You may engage with WDL from campus and we will support you right here. Alternately, if you would prefer to spend the first two weeks of the semester learning through WDL from your homes, you may do so, and delay your return to campus by two weeks. T. Veda and T. Whitney will be in touch to learn your preferences, so that we can help you move onto campus and get tested on an appropriate time frame.

Upper School Winter Co-Curriculars will begin on January 25.

Upper School students will begin co-curriculars and Middle School students will resume physical education modules on January 25 when we resume on-campus learning in those divisions. There is one exception: Governor Wolf has signaled that the moratorium on athletic practices will expire on January 4. Winter season varsity athletes may practice on campus starting January 11, on a voluntary basis, following a negative COVID test. Athletes and coaches will observe all mitigation strategies, including wearing masks at all times, even during practice. Please look for further details about co-curriculars from T. Paul and T. Mich.

Return-to-campus COVID Testing Dates will be adjusted.

As you know, students and employees returning to campus will undergo two rounds of testing. We have adjusted the schedule for testing according to the above decisions, as follows:

Week of January 4: Round 1 for Lower School students; Lower School teachers; boarding students returning to campus; and other faculty and staff who will be working on campus regularly from the start of the Spring Semester.
Week of January 11: Round 2 for Lower School students; Lower School teachers; boarding students returning to campus; and other faculty and staff who will be working on campus regularly from the start of the Spring Semester.
Week of January 18: Round 1 for Upper and Middle School students, and all teachers who remained off campus for the first two weeks of the semester.
Week of January 25: Round 2 for Upper and Middle School students, and all teachers who remained off campus for the first two weeks of the semester.

Students and employees may either take a test on campus, or through their own provider or clinic on the same time frame. Please look for additional details about on-campus testing from Laura Dimery, our Pandemic Coordinator.

Looking ahead to a new year

Friends, I know that this decision will come as a disappointment to our students in Middle and Upper School and their families. It was a great joy to be on campus with you in the fall even as we made our way through challenges posed by mitigation strategies, quarantines, and the like. We cannot wait to see you on campus again soon! Nevertheless, I hope you understand that we continue to make decisions in light of all available facts, and in support of the greater good for our entire community. We are relying on reasonable estimates and extrapolations made by experts about what is coming in January and February. Of course, this is hardly a crystal ball, but we would rather find ourselves on January 25 reflecting that in hindsight our online start in Upper and Middle School was unnecessarily cautious, than go full steam ahead into the semester and incur undue risk for our community. In short, as 2020 transitions into 2021, we prefer to be cautious and wrong than heedless and wrong.

To reiterate, I am hopeful that 2021 will be an experience of gradual but continuous improvement in many respects. Vaccines are on the way, as are warmer and longer days which I look forward to sharing with you. Meanwhile, here's wishing all of you a very happy, healthy, and peaceful new year, and as always, thank you for your patience and partnership.

Yours,