2021 Planning

List of 7 items.

• FAQs About January Return

  Why are we doing pre-arrival testing, and what type of COVID-19 diagnostic test should my son have during our pre-arrival quarantine?

  The pre-arrival test will detect COVID-positive students before they make the trip to campus. Students testing positive should complete their 10-day isolation at home and coordinate an alternate arrival date with the Dean of Students’ office. Obtaining a pre-arrival test is also intended to encourage students and their families to adhere strictly to the self-quarantine guidelines so as not to become infected just before coming back to campus.

  
  

  Our preference is for him to get a PCR test, which is more sensitive and accurate. This can be a saliva-based test or a nasal swab test. If it is impossible to get a PCR test, a rapid antigen test is acceptable. We will NOT accept antibody tests. 

  
  

  What if we can’t get a test and/or result before we arrive on January 10th?

  We believe all students should be able to get a test in the January 5-9 window. If you are totally unable to get a test, please contact Director of Health Services Whitney Lane at whitney.lane@woodberry.org. 

  
  

  If results are not available before arriving at school, you will still be permitted to come to campus as long as you are not experiencing any symptoms and have not, to your knowledge, been in close contact with a person who has recently tested positive for COVID-19. When results do become available, please share them with Woodberry immediately.

  
  

  If we follow quarantine at home and Woodberry performs a rapid test on arrival, why do boys need to quarantine on campus, too?

  Even with two tests and pre-travel quarantines, an asymptomatic case might not be detected. For example, suppose someone in a student’s household attends a New Year’s Eve party and contracts the virus. That person will not likely become infectious for a few days, and may not pass the virus on to the Woodberry student in your household until January 5, 6, or 7, while the boy is in quarantine at home. This infection would be unlikely to show up positive on the pre-arrival test or the arrival-day test due to the incubation period of the virus and the imperfect sensitivity of the tests. In this case, an asymptomatic but infectious student would move into his dorm room. Our last PCR test on January 14 is designed to identify those cases before we relax the quarantine. 

  
  

  What happens if there are positive tests on January 15? 

  Boys testing positive will go into isolation, either at home or on campus. Their roommates will be quarantined. The rest of the students will move into the same pattern of operations we used in the last eight weeks of the fall.

  
  

  Why are the expectations the same for mass transit as they are for students who are within driving distance?

  Students needing to travel to campus by mass transit are expected to complete their travels and begin their quarantine period either on campus or within driving distance to campus by January 3. We want the expectations for every student to be the same. 

  
  

  Can I go to the dorm and help my son move back in? 

  We will use the same system as the move out in November. In order to reduce the risk of transmission, parents should not enter the dorm.

  
  

  Can I bring my son to campus after January 10?  

  Unfortunately, no. All boys must arrive on campus on January 10. Boys arriving after the 10th will have to complete a quarantine in Dowd House.

  
  

  How will boys handle the five-day quarantine on dorm?

  We know this will be a challenge. Boys will be in full days of classes starting on Monday and will have homework in the evenings. They will also be able to go outside and exercise individually or with their roommate during the afternoons. We’re adjusting the academic schedule so that boys are able to sleep later than normal and have longer free times for exercise and being outdoors during the middle of the way, when it will be warmest.

  
  

  What about meals during the quarantine?

  We will deliver all meals to the boys and provide some extra snacks in the dorm common rooms. If your son has a favorite snack, he should bring it with him when coming to campus.

• Safe Travel Tips

  Flying: 

  There is mounting evidence that the risk of COVID transmission aboard an airplane is quite low due to the high quality of the ventilation systems on modern passenger aircraft, especially if all passengers are wearing masks and seating allows for social distancing. Thus, the real risks of flying lie in the periphery of the flight itself — a big crowd waiting at the gate to board the plane, airport restaurants and cafes (see Dining section below), security lines, etc. The same practices that protect you from contracting COVID-19 in any other public place apply to these situations: wear your mask, stay socially distant from others, especially large crowds in indoor spaces, wash your hands often, and avoid places where others are unmasked, like restaurants and food courts. 

  
  

  Hotels: Your hotel room should be safe, as there is little evidence of surface transmission of COVID-19. The key to this part of a trip is wearing a mask whenever you’re in the hotel hallways and lobby. You should also check out the dining suggestions below. Curbside pickup or having food delivered to your room through an app like DoorDash or Grubhub is much safer than eating inside a restaurant. 

  
  

  Driving: The starting point here is to minimize stops and to always wear a mask if you need to stop for gas or a bathroom break. Avoid, when possible, eating indoors in public places. 

  
  

  Dining: If you can travel to campus without stopping for a meal, please do so. If you do need to stop for a meal while driving, here are some suggestions:

  1. Pack a meal/snacks at home that you can eat on the road or at a rest area. 
  2. Only use drive-through or curbside pickup services. Many restaurants have rolled out new apps and ordering services to facilitate these purchases.
  3. Whatever food you purchase or pack, eat it far away from people outside your household. Sit outside at a picnic table or eat in the car. If staying the night at a hotel, eat in your room. Dining on a crowded patio or inside a restaurant is the most likely way for you or your son to be infected during his trip back to campus.

  
  
  
  
  

• January 2021 Repopulation Timeline and Plan

  While bringing everyone back to campus after summer break was, by and large, a success, it was also a learning experience. When we all return to campus again after Winter Break, we will be changing some elements of our repopulation process to A) streamline and shorten the experience to maximize Winter Break for everyone, B) take advantage of pre-arrival quarantine days to prevent bringing COVID-19 to campus, and C) guarantee the return to the relaxed policies we have in place now as quickly as possible.  To meet these objectives, we will adhere to the following timeline for repopulating Woodberry after Winter Break:

  
  

  Sunday, January 3 - All students begin pre-arrival self-quarantine at home.  

  Just as we did in the summer before move-in, we will ask that all students adhere to careful self-quarantine guidelines to limit the possibility of bringing COVID-19 to campus upon arrival. Here are guidelines for pre-arrival self-quarantining at home. Asking each student to self-quarantine before coming to campus serves two main purposes. First, if the student became infected prior to beginning quarantine, it provides a window of time for symptoms to develop and alert the student that he might be COVID-19-positive before making the decision to come to campus. Secondly, it limits the opportunity for a healthy boy to become infected just before arriving on campus, possibly prior to the development of symptoms.

  
  

  Sunday, January 3 - Arrival day for boys doing self-quarantine on campus.

  All students who require mass transportation (airplane, bus, train, etc.) should complete their travel by this day whether they plan to quarantine on campus or with a classmate or relative within driving distance of WFS. That way, they can maximize the period of controlled, unbroken quarantine for the reasons stated above. Although research is beginning to suggest that the use of mass transportation poses a lower risk of contracting the COVID-19 virus now than earlier in the pandemic, particularly with the enforcement of face coverings and social distancing, it still represents a situation with many unknowns, such as the infection status and health practices of other passengers. Finishing travel as close to the 3rd as possible will allow us a sufficient amount of time to detect and isolate any positive cases before school operations return to normal and the virus would be allowed to spread. If you need to arrive outside of this window, you must get approval from the dean of students. Additionally, we have limited capacity to care for these boys from the 3rd to the 10th and as such please make every reasonable effort to quarantine at a friends house or somewhere else local

  
  

  Boys using mass transportation will be asked to wear a properly fitted KN95 mask, maintain distance from others, practice good hand hygiene, and avoid places such as restaurants where others are not wearing masks. All boys will be tested for COVID-19 via a nasal swab upon their arrival on campus, plus two more times over the proceeding two weeks. Combined, these measures should prevent COVID-19 cases on campus as a result of mass transportation, as well as stem transmission on campus should a positive case arrive. 

  
  

  Tuesday, January 5 - Saturday, January 9 - Get tested before returning to campus. PCR tests are preferred, but a rapid test is acceptable if you cannot obtain a PCR test. 
  
  Sunday, January 10 - Arrival day at Woodberry Forest for all forms.

  Upon completion of the at-home quarantine period, boys of all forms will move back onto campus on Sunday, January 10. Staggered arrival times based on distance from campus will be utilized to streamline this process, similar to the arrival days at the beginning of the school year. All boys will be tested for COVID-19 by nasal swab upon arrival before being allowed to move into their dorm rooms. On the way to campus, we ask that everyone follow good health practices including masking, social distancing, hand hygiene, and avoiding places where others are not wearing masks, such as restaurants. Please do not come to campus if you are experiencing symptoms of COVID-19 or have been exposed to someone who has recently tested positive for the virus. In addition, it will be of critical importance to wear a mask and maintain social distance from everyone on campus (except roommate(s)) from the moment you arrive until the strict in-room quarantine period has ended. After returning to campus and receiving a COVID-19 test, all students will go straight to their dorm rooms to begin strict in-room quarantining. All other campus buildings will be closed. Parents should not enter dorm buildings.

  
  

  Sunday, January 10 post-arrival - Friday, January 15 - Strict in-room quarantine period.

  In order to return to normal operations as quickly as possible, we must ensure that any positive COVID-19 cases brought to campus are not allowed to spread through the student population. One of the downsides of the cohort system in use in the Fall was that it would allow an infected student to potentially expose others in his cohort over the course of days or even weeks. Thus, attempting to trace, quarantine, and test those contacts with great confidence proved difficult, and the possibility of further rounds of spread always existed. Because of this, the time spent in cohorts was prolonged and necessary activities such as athletic team practices and meals in the dining hall were delayed. As an alternative to the cohort system, this Winter we will be utilizing a strict in-room quarantine period that will ensure a healthy student population and allow a return to our current operating status much more quickly.

  
  

  During in-room quarantine, students will stay in their dorm rooms except for designated times. Bathroom occupancy will be limited to roommates only at a single time. All classes will be held online and all meals will be delivered to the dorms by faculty and staff. Snacks and drinks will be on-hand in the dorm common rooms and refrigerators. Additional programming for exercise and entertainment is being developed, and the academic schedule may be modified to allow for more sleep in the mornings. Any positive cases detected from the first round of testing will be isolated on campus or, preferably, sent home to isolate, and roommate(s) will be quarantined.
  
  Thursday, January 14 - All students will take a second COVID-19 test with results available the next day.

  
  
  
  

  Friday, January 15 - Last day of strict in-room quarantine for all with a negative test. 

  Operations on Friday, January 15 will remain unchanged until all results from the second round of COVID testing are known. We expect test results to be returned by the afternoon or early evening, and any positive cases will be isolated and their roommates moved to quarantine. Once this is done, campus policies and operations will return to their current state, with cohort restrictions in place only in the dining hall and masking expected in all indoor spaces and outdoors when distancing cannot be maintained. 

  
  

  Four and a half days of strict in-room quarantine will be a huge shared sacrifice to endure, individually and as a community. However, this is the only way to guarantee a speedy return to the new normal. The cohort-oriented, gradual loosening we did this fall opens the door for viral spread during that first week. Positive cases and subsequent quarantining may also lead to a longer period of cohort-only socializing. Strict in-room quarantining ensures that spread does not happen, and allows us to return to the new normal with very high confidence that we have a healthy community.

• Policies for Parent Visits to Campus

  Click here for Important Athletics Spectator Policy Updates
  
  Parent Visits
  Parents are welcome to visit their sons beginning on Friday, April 9 and on future Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. We plan to follow these protocols for the next several weekends and may adjust our plans based on how these first few weekends go. Please note that boys may not leave campus with you for meals or other excursions during your weekend visits. Finally, please note there are some days when we may not be able to host visitors to campus because of large campus events or agreements we are reaching with other schools around spectator policies for athletic events. We will announce those games or dates in advance.
  
  

  To ensure we are best positioned to have a full and complete spring trimester, we ask that you adhere to these guidelines. First, if you have any symptoms of COVID-19, or if you have been exposed to COVID-19 in the past two weeks, please do not visit campus. We know that delaying a visit due to these restrictions is difficult, and we appreciate your patience and partnership.

  
  

  Before you come to campus:

  • Please obtain a PCR COVID test within 72 hours of coming to campus or a rapid test on the day of your visit; you may visit if your result is negative. More details will be forthcoming about how to share your result with us. 
  • If you have completed your COVID vaccination series more than two weeks ago, you do not need to take a test. This means two weeks after your second shot if you got a Pfizer/Moderna vaccine, or two weeks after the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. More details will be forthcoming about how to share your proof of vaccination with us. 
  • If you have tested positive for COVID in the past 90 days, you do not need to take a test. Again, we’ll let you know how to submit documentation reflecting this.

  While you’re here:

  • Please visit outside with your son. Other than going into a building to use a restroom, please do not enter campus buildings. The most easily reached restrooms are in the Barbee Center Lobby, at the top of the Dick Gym steps (women's room only), or the middle level of the Manning Family Science Building.
  • You and your son should both wear a mask at all times during your visit (even if you are vaccinated). 
  • Please observe social distancing during the visit. Observing social distancing means we would not need to quarantine your son if you test positive for COVID-19 in the days after a visit. 
  • Please plan to visit between 1:00 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. We ask that visits conclude by 6:30 p.m. so that we can move forward with our evening programming.

  These guidelines will help us ensure our collective goal of achieving a full, in-person spring on campus while hopefully reintroducing a bit more normal routine into the Woodberry experience. 

• Wearing Masks

  We will be wearing cloth masks (sometimes called face coverings) a lot this year. More and more research shows the effectiveness of wearing masks properly as a critical tool for reducing the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Given that so many COVID-19 carriers don’t have symptoms, our commitment to wearing masks consistently is a demonstration of respect for each other and for the health of the Woodberry community.

  
  

  The Health and Safety Task Force has made two important clarifications to our mask rules recently. based on recent information from the CDC and published academic studies.

  1. Thin “neck gaiters” are not acceptable as masks. New evidence shows those very thin fabrics do not block virus particles effectively.
  2. Face shields cannot be a replacement for a mask. You are welcome to wear a mask and a face shield.

  
  

  • Indoors: Everyone must wear a mask and practice distancing. 
  • Outdoors: Everyone must wear a mask or practice distancing

  
  Learn more about masks here.

• Surveillance Testing for COVID-19

  Set to begin September 29 

  Each week, one student from each cohort, one staff member from each student-facing department, and 20% of the faculty will be randomly selected for COVID testing. Our infirmary nurses will conduct the tests in-house at the infirmary. All individuals selected for testing will be presumed negative, so the only disruption to their days will be the test itself, unless a positive result is obtained. In the case of a positive result, all established procedures for isolation and contact tracing will be implemented immediately.

  
  

  We will hold our first round of surveillance testing on Tuesday, September 29th in the morning and will continue each Tuesday morning through the trimester. Those individuals selected for testing will be notified at least two days in advance with the test time and any pertinent details. For at least the first two weeks, this will be the same nasal swab and PCR diagnostic test employed during the repopulation phase, with results available within approximately 72 hours. Again, everyone selected for a test will be presumed negative and thus will be able to go about their days normally as they await results. Only positive test results will be communicated with the affected individuals.

• Student Quarantine Information

  Boys quarantining on campus will be in Dowd House because they’ve been exposed to a case through close contact or because they have spent a night off campus recently. Sarah Sydnor is the point of contact for boys in quarantine.

  
  

  More details are available here.