COVID Update, Holiday Travel & Governor’s New Guidance
November 16, 2020
Dear SGS Community,
Let me start off by thanking everyone for doing everything you can to help lower the risk of spreading COVID-19 inside Saint George's School. The cooperation from all stakeholders in our contact tracing has been great. While it is not customary to divulge medical and sometimes personal issues to anyone outside your doctor and family, it has truly made a huge impact up to this point. I have appreciated how forthright our parents and staff have been to ensure the safety of the community. I also appreciate the sensitive nature of questions that arise in situations when dealing with close contact protocols or symptoms parents and students may be experiencing.
While there has been a change of Health Officers at Spokane Regional Health District, the service to our school has not missed a beat. The epidemiologists are always there to answer questions and walk us through scenarios no matter what time of day or day of the week. Saint George's School appreciates their guidance and we will continue to work closely with them throughout the pandemic.
We have two major holidays coming up and recent history has taught us that COVID spikes after each holiday. We are currently seeing the highest numbers in our country to date. There is an expectation the number of cases could increase even more after Thanksgiving, which has led to a travel advisory from the Governor.
Governor Inslee’s Travel Advisory for Non-Essential Travel on Friday, Nov. 13:
1. Persons arriving in Washington from other states or countries, including returning Washington residents, should practice self-quarantine for 14 days after arrival. These persons should limit their interactions to their immediate household. This recommendation does not apply to individuals who cross state or country borders for essential travel.
2. Washingtonians are encouraged to stay home or in their region and avoid non-essential travel to other states or countries. Avoiding travel can reduce the risk of virus transmission and bringing the virus back to Washington.
• “Non-essential travel” includes travel that is considered tourism or recreational in nature. https://ca.usembassy.gov/travel-restrictions-fact-sheet/
• “Essential travel” includes: work and study, critical infrastructure support, economic services and supply chains, health, immediate medical care, and safety and security.
With the rising cases of COVID, we know it will be ever more challenging to prevent the virus from being introduced to campus. If you plan to travel, attend, or host large gatherings with people outside of your immediate household, we would encourage families to follow the Governor’s advisory and self-quarantine for 14 days after last contact with the extended group. Saint George's School also recognizes some families may choose to return to distance learning for 14 days to mitigate risk from the holiday, regardless of how you spend the holidays. We are not requiring a mandated 14-day quarantine and expect families to continue to act in everyone’s best interest to keep our students, parents, faculty and staff safe. This includes keeping students home if they have symptoms and communicating with the school’s administrative team if contact tracing is necessary. We are making every attempt to avoid a large quarantine situation at the school that will force us to return to full time Distance Learning model.
The following restrictions were released by the Governor on Sunday, Nov. 15:
K-12 Schools are allowed to continue in-person learning unless directed by the local Regional Health District otherwise.
The guidance on youth and adult sports does not allow for indoor workouts and requires masks for all outdoor activities.
• It does not specifically list high school sports. However, Saint George's School will put after-school workouts on hold until we get more guidance from the Governor and the WIAA.
Saint George's School plans to remain open and offer the hybrid model (both in-person and remote learning) of instruction currently in place after the holidays. We hope you will partner with us to mitigate as much risk as possible. Great things are happening at SGS and we would love to keep things moving forward with as few speed bumps as possible. I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season.
Stay Safe,
Ryan Peplinski
Saint George's School
COVID Coordinator