When school started on Sept. 8, many thought it would only be a matter of time until the doors to the school buildings closed and teachers opened their laptops and taught our students remotely. Four months later, students still walk the halls and learn in person with their teachers. We are grateful for the community commitment that has enabled hybrid options for students and families to continue.
How have the families of Harvard students contributed to the safety of our community? Back in August, they partnered with the district leaders and School Committee members to carefully and thoroughly plan the details of schooling with many new safety procedures and protocols. Every detail was planned, down to the type of mask to be worn, how bathrooms would be monitored and cleaned, measurement and floor taping for where desks would go, policies for how to respond to potential cases of COVID-19, travel guidelines, and more. We hired additional teachers, added more teaching sections, brought in large tents for outside teaching spaces, ordered COVID-19 supplies, created a hybrid schedule, and communicated frequently.
One of the big decisions was whether to serve lunch. Serving lunch would have meant that students would be unmasked in the building at mealtime, and increased the risks. Despite the popularity of Chef Paul’s food program, we made the difficult decision to forgo serving food and stayed with a strict mask-wearing policy in the buildings. Students walk outside for snack breaks, and the hybrid, in-person hours end at noon or 1:15 p.m. to accommodate lunch at home, with remote learning continuing in the afternoons.
We asked families to limit their travel, quarantine or isolate as needed, and conduct daily health checks before sending their children to school. With a conservative approach to safety, families knew that two concurrent positive cases of the virus in the district would cause us to switch to remote learning for 14 days. We have not needed to switch to all-remote learning because Harvard families have committed to keeping the community safe.
Our evidence of their commitment includes the fact that, to date, the district has had only two nonconcurrent, known positive cases of COVID-19. Over 100 students, faculty, and staff have quarantined for travel or because they were in close contact with someone who was positive for the coronavirus. Those who quarantined tested negative and returned to school after the required number of days. Our school nurses have worked tirelessly with families, helping them to know what to do and how to proceed.
In other evidence, a recent survey of families in the district showed that over 90% of respondents do not plan to travel outside of Massachusetts over the winter break. This reduction of out-of-state travel demonstrates a sacrifice from families, who in the past may have used the long break to escape to warmer weather, ski in Vermont or Maine, or visit relatives in other parts of the country or world. We appreciate the change to their traditional plans as part of their community commitment.
As the months have gone on, we continue to gather data and update our safety measures while remaining diligent in our newly established procedures. Recently, our school nurses added another safety measure to our schools when they received training to administer an antigen test to symptomatic students and adults. Already they have used the free, state-provided tests with symptomatic individuals after gaining consent from families. We hope to add weekly testing for students, faculty, and staff who volunteer to participate, in January.
January will come with its own challenges. Nothing about this year has been easy, but we are hopeful for more testing, a vaccine, and the eventual return of more in-person learning opportunities. Until those days come, we remain thankful for what we have accomplished together. Thank you for partnering with us.
Dr. Linda Dwight is superintendent of Harvard public schools.
