Fall 2020 Reopening Plan

Students and faculty who wish to return to campus have been asked and are expected to continue to limit their contact with other people outside family and close friends. Making this significant sacrifice will have two principle benefits. First, it will significantly reduce an individual’s chances of contracting COVID-19 and then spreading the virus to other members of the Prep community. Second, it will reduce the impact of local and state quarantine regulations on a student’s ability to continue coming to campus in the event that a positive case is identified. As we have seen, local and state guidelines currently mandate that anyone who has been within six feet of a positive case for a total of 15 minutes or more is required to quarantine for two weeks. As such, we define “limiting social contact” as avoiding social contact within six feet of individuals other than family or close friends for more than 15 minutes over a three-day period. Note that these procedures have been put into place to prevent the spread of COVID within our community and to increase the likelihood that on-campus learning continues through the fall.

We recognize that faculty, students, and their families may choose to participate in events (e.g. family weddings or other celebrations, sports tournaments or group practices, or other group gatherings outside of Prep) that necessitate close contact with individuals beyond their immediate bubble. Our hybrid model is designed to support those choices with virtual instruction. Students who choose to attend these types of events who would like to return to campus, should contact the Dean of Students office for details about a 14-day quarantine period and testing protocol, which will allow for re-entry to campus following such events.

All members of the Prep community who wish to participate in on-campus instruction must sign the Prep Pledge, a social compact through which each of us attests to a personal commitment to the community’s health and safety. If they have not submitted a pledge to the Dean of Students office already, students must bring a signed copy of the document to campus when they return. If there are one or more provisions you or your son cannot abide by, he will still be welcomed to participate in the Prep community through our virtual campus.

Beginning Monday, October 5 we will move into a phase where the campus will be open to faculty and students who would like to return (and have been COVID tested three times in September with negative results) to a de-densified hybrid model of instruction.

• Students with the last name starting A-L will be welcome on campus on Monday and Tuesday.
• Students with the last name starting with M-Z will be welcome on campus on Thursday and Friday. 

This will allow us to work closely with students and help them adjust to the new safety protocols and procedures and logistically ramp up to the new health and safety procedures. We will follow this schedule and process until otherwise noted.

Students, faculty, and staff will be expected to wear face masks properly at all times while on campus when in the presence of other people except while eating meals or while in their own dorm room. Everyone on campus should maintain a physical distance of at least six feet whenever possible. Bandanas, gaiters and valve masks are not acceptable face coverings.

All students, faculty, and staff will be expected to conduct their own daily health screening including a temperature check and symptom check before coming to campus (day students, faculty, and staff) or before entering the dining hall for breakfast (resident students) and input the results into a daily text or email survey. Students, faculty or staff who have a fever or other symptoms of illness must remain off campus or isolated in their dorm room. Resident students with a fever or symptoms must report them to the health office for further observation and diagnosis.

We have partnered with the health tracking software, Ruvna, to monitor and track our students, faculty, and staff and to report any potential symptoms. Each morning when school is in session at 5:00 a.m. students, faculty, and staff will receive both a text message and email from Ruvna with three (3) health screening questions. You will be asked to submit your results and a QR code will be populated. To enter campus in the morning, faculty and student check-in will take place in the George Center George and staff will be checked each morning at the guard house at the front of campus. Students will not be allowed to access campus prior to 7:15 a.m.

Please make sure you have your QR code ready and available each morning when you arrive on campus. The QR code you receive is good for one day only. If you need to leave the campus, you'll need that same QR code for re-entry on that same day. If you are having technical issues or problems with the Ruvna software, please contact Bear Altemus, Registrar.

All Georgetown Prep students will be directed to park in the Gray Lot west of Fegan-Galvin Field. After arrival, students will make their way to the entrance of the George Center in a socially distant manner and must wear masks. Once they enter the George Center, students will enter in single file line to have their temperature checked before entering campus. Students who arrive to campus prior to 8:00 a.m. will be directed to a workstation in the George Café or George Center Library where they can wait until proceeding to their first period class.

Temperature checks will be administered to all students, faculty, and staff upon arrival to campus in the morning, before lunch, and prior to any on-campus athletic workout. Anyone with a fever greater than 100.4F will not be admitted to campus in the morning or sent to the Health Office if it registered during the school day. The Dean of Students Office will manage this process using two Mobotix Thermal: M16 Thermal Cameras with Optical Sensors. The Ruvna Scan and Temperature check must be completed successfully before starting class.

The daily bell schedule has been altered to allow additional passing time between classes to assist in the social distancing process and additional sanitization. In addition, modifications to the daily schedule have been made to adapt and respond to the feedback received last Spring from faculty, parents, and students.

• The schedule includes a ten-minute passing time between periods, rather than the traditional five. This will allow ample time for those students attending classes in person to move from classroom to classroom and building to building utilizing the new pedestrian traffic patterns on campus. It also provides a more substantive break from the computer screen for those attending virtually.
• The schedule reduces class periods from forty minutes to thirty-five minutes. This change is in response to feedback from the Spring about the length of the school day and the challenges of attendance in different time zones, as well as in an attempt to reduce the fatigue of extended screen use for our students.
• Morning Break: Students will remain in their second period classroom for the duration of break. The George Café will not be open for food purchases. Students will proceed from break directly to their third period class.
• The schedule includes a slightly modified rotation. We will continue to follow a Blue Monday schedule each day; however, those classes which meet periods one and two on Monday and Tuesday will meet periods seven and eight on Thursday and Friday. This is 4 meant to provide some variety to student and teacher schedules, as well as to accommodate those students in different time zones who may only be able to attend a certain portion of the school day.
• We will continue to employ Wednesdays as a non-class day. The mornings will be reserved for faculty professional development and communication, while the students have a chance to rest. The afternoons will be reserved for student development, both in terms of their social-emotional development and their academic growth. Advisory will meet in the afternoon, and after advisory students will have an opportunity to meet with their teachers for academic support and/or extracurricular participation; by putting the advisory session just before these support sessions, we feel that more students and more faculty will take advantage of the time than in the Spring.
• We have designed a more robust system of student support, including tutoring programs, and teacher-led course-based support structures.

Because students and faculty must remove their face masks in order to eat, we will change the location of and institute new procedures for lunch and other meals on campus to minimize the risk of transmitting the virus. Lunch will the served in our 50,000 square foot field house inside the Hanley Center for Athletic Excellence.

• Students will be seated by section, and temperature checks will be conducted before each student enters the Hanley Center Field House for their assigned lunch period. The students, as per protocol, will be socially distant and wearing masks except while eating.
• The South Room will be closed to all non-residential staff and students during the day, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner. During lunch, students will sit two (2) to a table. Students will be dismissed from lunch in small sectional groups.
• The students will get more detail on Monday (A-L) and Thursday (M-Z). 

By spreading out and reducing the number of students and faculty who share a meal together without a face mask, we will minimize the impact in the event that a positive case makes it onto campus. This will also reduce the number of people who would have to then quarantine as a result of exposure to a positive case of COVID-19. Whenever possible students and faculty will be encouraged to eat outside to further reduce the likelihood of community spread.

When students return to campus, they will notice new directional signage on the grounds. We have carefully mapped the campus to ensure that we create a socially distanced and safe directional path to classes and to campus buildings. We ask that all students, faculty, and staff follow the directions clearly displayed on campus. In addition, the School has placed “six-feet-apart” signs all over campus. Students will be asked to follow new pedestrian traffic patterns on campus in order to allow for maximum social distancing and limit contact between individuals. Hallways, stairwells, doorways, and sidewalks will have a one-way traffic pattern wherever possible. A new counterclockwise loop system will be implemented in the main quad whose center will be closed off to pedestrians.

Students are expected be in dress code aside from their blazers while on campus. Faculty and staff are expected to be in their regular, professional dress code while on campus.

A student whose teacher is not on campus and is teaching virtually will be assigned a workstation on campus from which to Zoom into their class. Students will be receiving an email with preassigned (numbered) workstation locations for each period they don’t have a teacher present. Students must stay at the assigned workstations during the duration of the class period for contact tracing purposes. Students are reminded to bring a fully-charged device, a charger, and headphones to campus in an attempt to ensure individual engagement with the online classroom.

Students should take care to pay close attention to their Veracross daily schedule information. Due to class sizes and social distancing requirements, classroom locations may have changed from their initial assignment.

Students are to move from class to class promptly and without gathering together, following the signage and new pedestrian patterns on campus. When a student enters a classroom or reports to a workspace, he is expected to sit and remain seated unless he requires use of the facilities. There is to be no congregating in hallways or public spaces.

All students and faculty are expected to “foam in, foam out” of the classrooms. The expectation is that anyone entering a classroom will utilize the wall-mounted hand sanitizer station, and that they will repeat that action upon departing. Students and faculty are also expected to wipe down any and all workstations after each class period, using the sanitizing wipes provided in each classroom.

The I.A.C. has postponed all Interschool athletic competitions until January 2021. Team-based athletic programs will continue to be offered under strict guidelines to allow students to continue to develop their skills, maintain their fitness, and recreate. The Athletic Department will launch after-school team-based workouts for all students who are interested beginning Monday, October 12. Students who wish to participate will be asked to register during the week of October 5. We will begin the fall by offering team workouts for football, soccer, and cross country. The athletic department will also be outlining procedures for out-of-season sports workouts in compliance with I.A.C. regulations.

The Hanley Center's fitness and recreational facilities will remain closed until further notice.

Access to campus proper will be limited to students, faculty, and staff and those with pre-approved business on the campus. The Georgetown Prep Tennis Club will continue to operate with patrons limited to tennis club facilities only.

Georgetown Prep will continue to work closely with the Montgomery County Health Department when students, faculty, or staff test positive for COVID-19. The County is the primary entity responsible for contact tracing. The school’s responsibility it to support their County’s efforts. The County Health Department will determine if the school has to close in the event of an outbreak. All Prep students and their families are expected to cooperate with the contact tracing process and follow the directions of Montgomery County or the Prep administration. Failure to do so will result in loss of on-campus privileges.

Our facilities staff have enhanced their procedures to frequently disinfect hard surfaces and provide for deep cleaning of classrooms, bathrooms, dining, and dorm facilities on a regular basis.

Health-related: Sharon Weldon, RN

Dean of Students' Office: Chris Rodriguez, Dean of Students

Academic Dean's Office: Erik Maginnis, Academic Dean

Custodial and Maintenance: maintenance@gprep.org

IT/Tech Support: techsupport@gprep.org

Food Services: foodservice@gprep.org

Facility Scheduling/Requests: Debbie Conners and Joseph Patterson

Campus Visitors: Joseph Patterson and Chris Lapp

Our campus facilities staff in conjunction with outside subcontractors upgraded our Health Office facilities in order to prepare for the additional challenges of the current health crisis. The upgrades include overnight isolation rooms for students who are exhibiting COVID-19 symptoms. We have also increased the health office staffing by providing additional nursing and physician resources.

Our campus facilities staff has upgraded the air filtration systems in MacKavanaugh, Gunlocke, Haas, Hanley, and the George Center. This includes installation of Dynamic 2” Panels to replace existing 2” passive filters. The school was using passive filtration ranging from throw-away filters to filters with a MERV 8 rating. We have implemented 2” Dynamic Panels in 29 AHUs across the campus including all AHUs which serve high density areas with student interaction or public spaces like common areas. Dynamic 2” Panels have a MERV 13 equivalent rating, 15-25% first pass TVOC removal, media life of 12 months versus the existing filter life of three months. The capture rate of particles and gases is 90% versus the existing passive filters with a capture rate of less than 20%.

We have conducted a thorough review of each classroom furniture setup. Layouts have been modified and furniture has been changed in order to provide the maximum possible social distance between students in the classroom. Students will sit at single desks that are situated a minimum distance of six feet apart. All multi-student tables have been removed from classrooms and repurposed as single student workstations for students to use during their free periods or to Zoom into a remote class.

The campus facilities staff added additional hand sanitizing stations throughout the campus and students will be directed to wash or sanitize their hands throughout the school day. Students will be asked to “foam in” and “foam out” of each class and lunch.