COVID-19 UPDATE – A message from our Head of School
It seems that every day there are new pieces of information about the coronavirus pandemic and with those, speculations about what will happen next. With so many conflicting viewpoints and guidance documents that appear minimal, at best, The Glen is committed to blazing our own path with the guidance of professionals in the fields of medicine, law, risk assessment, and epidemiology to determine our path going forward.
In Education for a New World, Dr. Montessori said, “It is responsibility that a leader should feel, not the authority of his position.” This is a quote I come back to over and over as we make decisions during this unprecedented time. The Board of Directors, the Administration, and the Educational Leadership Team of our school are all committed to prioritizing the health and safety of our students, faculty, and families as we make decisions regarding reopening our building and grounds.
COVID-19 is extremely contagious and is believed to be spread from person-to-person contact. The Glen cannot guarantee that individuals in our community will not become infected within our campus, however, we are preparing to do our best good-faith effort to reduce the spread of this disease.
The Glen has recruited a panel of experts to examine the health and safety procedures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Camping Association (ACA), and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) and help create policies and procedures that work for our school. These experts include individuals from the medical community (including those who have treated COVID-19 and specialize in pediatrics), epidemiology, legal and risk assessment in addition to representatives from our own faculty and administrations. This group has strongly recommended that we wait to see the realization of the green phase, before opening our Birth to Three program and summer camp.
In preparation for reopening, The Glen’s COVID-19 Advisory Group is carefully developing new procedures for how students and families will enter the building during this time, new sick policies for families and faculty, and new program procedures for Birth to Three and International Summer Camp. The group is advising decreased classroom sizes, dedicated staffing for each classroom of students, elimination of group areas such as the cafeteria, specials classrooms, or gymnasium They are preparing for training our faculty and staff on the new procedures and new day-to-day routines within the school and grounds.
Additionally, we have been working very hard for weeks to purchase enough personal protective equipment for our faculty and our facility. We will need a steady supply of masks, gloves, gowns, face shields, hand sanitizer, cleaning, and sanitizing products. These materials remain difficult to secure – and we are acutely aware that should we run out, the health and safety of our community would be compromised.
The Glen remains dedicated to maintaining as safe an environment as is reasonable within our resources. Our Board of Directors has made a commitment to prioritize people and I am grateful for the expertise of volunteers who are willing to lend their expertise to developing guidelines and procedures for us to do everything we can to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
We are hopeful, should the incidents of COVID-19 remain steady and not increase dramatically, that we will be able to open our campus on Monday, July 6. We will keep you posted as we get closer to the date. It is important that as we prepare to reopen that parents have an adequate opportunity to review new policies and procedures as we all prepare to move forward together.
We remain #GlenStrongerTogether!
Jackie Herrmann
Head of School