COVID-19 Updates

Derby Derby Community, 

We hope you are enjoying the holidays and winter break, however different they may be from the norm. We (Derby’s Covid Task Force) are writing now to inform you of some recent decisions, so you can make or adjust your plans for our return to school in January.

We have been monitoring the rise in local Covid cases over the past weeks. As the first term came to a close and in the days following, we had an uptick in the Derby community with eight positive cases (all are doing okay). All individuals and cohorts with close contact to the individuals have been notified; if you were not contacted, you were not considered a close contact. 

Upon review of the situation and in consideration of the possible impact of holiday gatherings, activities, and travel, the Task Force has made several decisions to protect the health and safety of students and teachers and allow us to continue on-campus instruction as much as possible. The decisions do impact the manner of our return to school in January. Additional information will be provided in a timely fashion, but we want you to be aware of the following decisions and schedule changes:

Monday, January 4 – School closed- no classes; Professional Day for faculty to prepare for online learning.

Tuesday, January 5 through Thursday, January 7 – Remote learning days for all students in all grades.

Friday, January 8 – All-school Covid Testing on campus- no classes.

Derby will administer, at school expense, COVID-19 PCR tests for all students, faculty, and staff. The Health Office will provide details and directions for the process next week. With the exception of those who have tested positive in the last 90 days (please provide positive test results to the Health Office), confirmed negative results will be required for all students, faculty, and staff before they may resume on-campus activities. For those who travel out of Massachusetts over the break, you must return by January 3 in order to participate in the Derby Covid testing on January 8. We are setting the five-day waiting period to maximize test accuracy. If you return to Massachusetts after January 3, you will need to arrange for independent PCR testing after January 8, at your own expense.

Monday, January 11 – On-campus learning resumes dependent upon receipt of testing results. 

If you do not wish to have your child(ren) tested, you may choose the remote learning program for the period of January 5 through January 19. 

Though the uptick mentioned above cannot be related to any on-campus spread, the increased presence of the virus in the greater community has led us to reconsider our quarantining and tracing practices. When we return, a new question will be added to the Magnus daily check-in app to inquire if anyone in the household is awaiting testing results. A positive response would exclude students in that household from attending until the results were known.

While we are confident that our on-campus protocols have been successful, with the increased presence of the virus in the broader community, we are concerned about off-campus exposure or exposure within families leading to on-campus spread. The growing number of cases also means that local boards of health are taking longer to contact trace. Therefore, we are asking Derby families who interact with symptomatic or Covid positive individuals off-campus to work with us to fully and expeditiously contact trace. With your help, we hope to minimize the possibility of on-campus spread. 

Specifically, upon return, we will initiate the following practice:

• Student A tests positive for Covid: Student A and cohort will be quarantined.
• Student B, a member of the cohort, will quarantine. If Student B has interacted with, been unmasked in the home or car of, or participated in activities with Student A off-campus, siblings of Student B will be asked to quarantine.
• Student C, another member of the cohort will quarantine. If Student C, however, has not had any contact with Student A off-campus, Student C’s siblings do not have to quarantine.

We hope this will help to avoid possible on-campus spread without extending the quarantine across siblings of all members of a cohort. The Health Office will work with families to identify these off-campus contacts and support understanding and diligence in following this new protocol.

Since we began planning for this Covid situation last summer, we adopted an approach of plan, implement, learn, and adjust. It has served us well. The discipline, commitment, and resilience of our students, faculty, and staff have added to our success. The Task Force is unanimous in its belief that to continue to be successful these steps are now necessary for all the reasons we hear, read about, and experience each day. We will continue to monitor developments and remain in close touch with state and local health authorities and provide updates when appropriate.

We thank you for your support of these efforts, your understanding of the complexities involved, and your attention to Derby’s protocols that helped us complete a truly successful fall. Now, we ask for a renewal, even an increase, in your commitment to putting the health and well-being of the Derby community ahead of individual plans. Doing so will make a difference, and every day on campus counts. Just a few more months!

Thank you,

Derby Covid Task Force: