Wednesday, June 16, was the last day of the 2020–21 year for the Harvard Public School system. Holy Toledo, what a year.
When school began in Harvard last August, children, teachers, and staff nervously began a hybrid program unlike anything any of us had ever experienced. Desks were carefully spaced 6 feet apart and wiped down repeatedly over the course of the school day. Because rooms couldn’t accommodate full classes, the Bromfield School student body was divided into two cohorts: One went to school on Mondays and Thursdays, the other on Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesdays were all remote, to accommodate “deep cleaning” of the school buildings. Some teachers taught behind plastic screens jury-rigged out of shower curtains.
Because of the district’s policy requiring masks indoors at all times, hybrid students went home for lunch and attended afternoon classes at home on screens. Meanwhile, students whose families selected an all-remote option worked with teachers online, cloistered in their houses.
Finally, after months of behind-the-scenes struggle, the district started a weekly COVID-19 screening program in January, enabling administrators both to assess how well the other mitigation strategies were working and to add another layer of protection against the possibility of COVID-19 infections spreading during the school day.
Policies based on science
Every single one of those COVID-19 mitigation strategies—distancing, clean-ing, cohorting, setting up plastic screens, wearing masks, screening for COVID-19—was chosen based on the best science available at the time.
As scientists’ understanding of COVID-19 changed, the schools’ strategies changed, too. When the science told us that 3 feet of distance would be all right as long as everyone remained masked, the desks were moved closer together—and the testing program showed us that the science was right. When research on the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) showed that the risk was negligible outside, families were given the option to allow their children to remove their masks outdoors. Deep-cleaning and constant desk wipe-downs disappeared once enough evidence showed that surfaces were not a major avenue of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.
And the testing program showed us that the science was right.
Vaccination changes everything
On March 11, K-12 educators and staff became eligible for vaccination against COVID-19. On April 19, students 16 and up got vaccine access, and on May 12, students ages 12 and up got it.
By the time school starts in September, the vast majority of students, faculty, and staff at Bromfield will likely come to school fully vaccinated. Pfizer plans to submit its vaccine to the FDA for emergency use authorization for children ages 2–11 in September, so by mid-fall, even the youngest preschoolers can be vaccinated.
The vaccines are a beautiful thing. Based on real-world data, if you received either the Moderna or the Pfizer vaccine, you have a 94% chance of being protected from severe disease and are either 98.7% (Moderna) or 99.99% (Pfizer) likely to survive an infection. (Real-world studies on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine haven’t yet been published.) All three vaccines have shown strong in vitro efficacy against every variant of concern that has arisen thus far. They’ve outperformed every expectation.
Because of these vaccines, there’s a very real chance that the Harvard Public Schools will have something close to a “normal” school year in 2021–22. Yes, students and staff may need to start the year in masks, to help protect the elementary schoolers and sixth-graders. And the schools will likely continue some level of screening for COVID-19 at least through the fall (the state is planning on that). But as they’ve done this year, I expect that school leaders will make these decisions based on the most recent scientific information available.
Since the late winter of 2020, Harvard’s School Committee, administration, and teachers have kept up with the latest COVID-19 developments. They’ve let ongoing research guide school policies, always with an eye to keeping the community safe while giving our kids the best education possible under extraordinarily constrained circumstances. Throughout the year, I’ve watched school staff, teachers, and administrators pull together and step up. (Our school nurses are amazing.)
That kind of teamwork hasn’t been in evidence everywhere in the nation, or even here in Massachusetts. Plenty of school districts have seen either politics or fear split their communities into factions. So, throughout the past year, I’ve been grateful to live in our little town. Our school leaders let the evolving science of COVID-19 guide them through the most difficult year I hope any of us will ever experience. I can never thank them enough.
Liz Ruark is the founder of covidsafeschools.org and co-chair of COVID-Safe Schools, Harvard Public Schools’ community COVID-19 screening program. She holds a DVM degree from Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine.
