Health & Safety On Campus

Masking

All students and faculty/staff will be masked throughout the school day, indoors and outdoors. Please send your child to school with a well-fitted mask as well as several spare masks to facilitate changing during the day. Each classroom will also be equipped with additional child-sized masks.

The following masks are approved for use on campus by adults and students: cloth masks with ear loops or other head ties, with 2 or more layers of washable/breathable fabric, that completely cover the nose and mouth, that fit snugly against the side of the face with no gaps; surgical masks; KN95 masks; KF94 masks; and M95c masks. The following masks are NOT approved for use on campus by adults and students: neck gaiters, bandannas, masks with ventilator valves, N95 masks (unless for use in the Isolation & Care Area of the school).

Distancing

Desks and indoor seating for students will be placed three feet apart whenever possible. New individual student desks in all classroom spaces (except Pre-K).Distancing will be promoted to the extent possible in outdoor play spaces. Students will have snack and lunch in outdoor spaces at six feet distancing whenever possible.

Hand Hygiene

Frequent hand washing and sanitizing will be part of the school day. The school has invested in the following:

• Touchless sink faucets
• Touchless toilet flushers
• Hand sanitizer dispensers
• Separate student supplies by cohort/classroom for certain resource classes

Cleaning & Disinfecting

Classrooms, bathrooms, and all common areas throughout campus are cleaned and disinfected thoroughly on a daily basis after school by the facilities and custodial staff. This includes disinfecting all classroom surfaces and bathrooms using electrostatic sprayers and vacuuming carpets. Teachers are also required to perform the following daily cleaning in all classroom spaces:

• Disinfect desktops, countertops, classroom sinks, and any shared supplies between resource classes
• Disinfect desktops, countertops, and classroom sinks after school
• Disinfect laptops
• Disinfect all other common surfaces

Ventilation & Outdoors

Students will have snack and lunch in outdoor spaces at six feet intervals whenever possible.

The school will continue to optimize ventilation in all learning spaces. The school has invested significantly in classroom upgrades to optimize air ventilation as well as physical distancing between students and teachers. Safety upgrades include the following:

• Three or more HEPA ionizer air purifiers in each classroom depending on square footage
• Classroom window fans with reversible air flow

Each classroom space has a unique set of guidelines intended to maximize student and staff safety, including fan and window protocols, designated bathrooms, and other specifications.

Symptom Tracking

Every morning families will need to complete a student COVID Screening Survey via PCR prior to arrival on campus. Students will also receive a verbal symptoms check, mask check, and hand sanitizer when they enter campus.

All teachers and administrators will be particularly vigilant for any signs of COVID-19 that students or other staff members may be experiencing. If your child begins exhibiting any of the above symptoms while at school, the main office will contact you for immediate pick-up and next steps.

The symptoms of COVID-19 in children can present like other common illnesses, including the common cold, strep throat, or allergies. The most frequent symptoms of COVID-19 in children are fever and cough, but children may experience any of these signs or symptoms: fever or chills, cough, nasal congestion or runny nose, new loss of taste or smell, sore throat, shortness of breath or difficulty breathing, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting, stomachache, tiredness, headache, muscle or body aches. If your child is exhibiting any one or more COVID symptoms, or has a known or potential exposure, keep your child home and let the office know by emailing [email protected] (between 7:00AM - 4:00 PM) or if after hours to [email protected] and [email protected]. You will receive a message from a member of the leadership team on next steps in alignment with King County Public Health.

Please note that public health guidelines do change. Our leadership and Safe Schools Committee will stay apprised of any changes and meet to discuss changes to policy on a regular basis.

COVID-19 Testing

The Washington State Department of Health K-12 COVID-19 Requirements for the 2021–2022 School Year states, “Screening testing should be offered to students who have not been fully vaccinated when community transmission is at moderate, substantial, or high levels as defined by CDC’s matrix. Programs should test at least once per week, but should consider increasing the frequency of testing to twice per week if levels of community transmission are trending and/or remaining higher.”

In consultation with our Safe Schools Committee, we have decided to do weekly onsite pooled COVID-19 testing of students. Families may opt in or out and weekly student testing is not mandatory; however, the more families who opt in the safer our community will be. Additionally, the national testing service we have partnered with has confirmed that even a 50-60% opt-in rate is an efficacious mitigation measure that reduces risk and the potential for quarantining, and allows our children to continue to learn on campus safely.

Click here to read testing FAQs.

Class Quarantines

Should it become necessary, we are ready to pivot to distance learning if there is a positive case of COVID-19 in the classroom. Our plan for class quarantining is based on the King County Department of Health guidelines for K-12 schools, and is outlined as follows:

• If a student or teacher in a class tests positive for COVID-19, the entire class will quarantine at home for 7 days following the last close contact. We will also determine whether there are any other close contact exposures beyond the class, and direct them to quarantine.
• During the first school day of quarantine, students will attend a morning meeting; families will pick up materials and any needed technology from the school and a full day of distance learning will start the following school day.
• Quarantine can end after 7 full days if students have not developed symptoms and families can confirm a negative COVID test result. The test should occur no sooner than 5 days after exposure.
• To maintain an effective quarantine, we cannot offer a remote at school option for families of essential workers.
• Families will be expected to quarantine at home and not mix with other students from their class.
• Siblings of students in quarantine can remain at school unless their sibling tests positive.

Read the Quarantine FAQs here.

Extended Day

During Extended Day, students will mostly stay in outdoor spaces (only students from the same classroom will be allowed indoors together). Mixing of grade levels will be limited to outdoor spaces. Clubs will mix grades and also be limited to outdoor spaces.

All Extended Day and After-School Club staff members are fully vaccinated.

Travel Policy

In alignment with current state and CDC travel guidance for unvaccinated individuals, if your student is planning to travel out of state, including now until school starts, we are requiring a 14-day quarantine or a 7-day quarantine + negative COVID test. However, the quarantine policy will only apply if the unvaccinated student has traveled through a travel hub such as an airport or train station. Students who travel out of state by car or other form of private/personal transportation will not need to quarantine or test. Please note that destination is also a factor in weighing the relative risks of travel. Travel to areas where vaccination rates are low and/or COVID-19 rates are high could place an unvaccinated individual at risk regardless of whether the travel involved a hub. We ask that families be vigilant regardless of where they travel in order to protect themselves and our community.

Click here to read further FAQs on travel.

Distance Learning

Distance learning will be offered if a classroom cohort is required to quarantine due to an outbreak. The school will make every effort to get computers and assignments to the grade level for the duration of the time the classroom of students or grade level needs to be learning from home. For individual students needing to stay at home, teachers will do their best to share work as they would during any school absence.

If quarantine guidelines remain in place for unvaccinated travelers following Thanksgiving and Winter Break, teachers will provide at-home materials and a virtual check in with students. At-home materials will only be provided for families who travel out of state and through a travel hub such as an airport or train station. These materials will not be made available for travel over long weekends or conference days.

Click here to read further FAQs related to distance learning.

Vaccination

Consistent with the State of Washington mandate, Bertschi School is requiring that all teacher and staff be vaccinated for COVID-19 barring a medical or religious exemption. Bertschi’s employee vaccination rate is currently 98%. Our Safe Schools Committee has also established a policy that no unvaccinated employee or other adult will work indoors with children.

Bertschi will not allow parent volunteers in classrooms when school begins in September; we hope to introduce parent volunteer classroom opportunities later in the school year depending on the status of the COVID-19 pandemic. Any parent volunteers or other campus visitors would need to show proof of vaccination to the school in order to interact with students indoors. The school will not maintain actual vaccination records for parent volunteers and other visitors. We are committed to the privacy of your personal information; only the Head of School, Assistant Head of School, and Office Manager will view an individual parent’s vaccination status. We can accept the vaccination card or a picture of it in the Main Office, or you may opt to email it to [email protected].

Community Health and Safety Pledge

All Bertschi School families and faculty/staff are required to sign our Community Health & Safety Pledge. To view the pledge, view the Parent Resources page on the website Parent Portal.

Click here to read FAQs about the Community Health & Safety Pledge.

Wildfire Smoke Plan

We are planning for the possibility of wildfire smoke this fall and will monitor the Air Quality Index. If the AQI reaches 151-200 or higher (the “red zone”), we will hold school indoors with our enhanced ventilation and air purification systems. P.E. will take place indoors and there will be no recess. Classes will eat lunch in the gym and in the parking garage 6 feet apart.