Several Henrico private schools planning full-time, in-person return to school

Several private schools in Henrico County are planning to reopen for in-person instruction with distancing plans in the fall.

The Steward School, an independent junior kindergarten through 12th grade school in the Tuckahoe District, currently is planning to provide on-campus instruction beginning in August. The school is also planning to offer a full-time remote option for families and faculty, said head of school Dan Frank.

“Our plan, unless conditions change, is to open face-to-face,” Frank said, “but everything that we’re doing will allow us to go backward if needed,” if Virginia goes backward in the phase guidance that Gov. Ralph Northam has issued for schools.

Phase One calls for remote learning as the dominant form of instruction, while Phase Two allows for preschool through third grade students, English learners, and summer camps in school buildings. Phase Three allows in-person instruction adhering to social distancing, and Phase Four would be a “new-normal.”

The school plans to survey parents later this month to learn if any parents are uncomfortable returning to full-time instruction, Frank said.

Collegiate School, also an independent JK-12th grade school in Tuckahoe, also plans to reopen with in-classroom instruction on Sept. 1. Full-time remote learning will be an option, however, for families that need it, according to the school’s “The plan for Reopening Campus 2020-2021.”

The school will take the temperatures of students, faculty members and staffers each day; have staggered arrival times; require cloth face coverings; clean surfaces throughout and after the school day; require physical distancing in classrooms; provide hand sanitizer stations; and post new signage about foot traffic patterns, according to the reopening plan. The nurses’ offices will have separate spaces for people with COVID-19 symptoms. Officials have cleaned the school’s ventilation system and upgraded its air filters. In August, all students will receive “grade-appropriate campus health and safety training,” according to the reopening plan.

The school partnered with local epidemiologists at VCU Health, pediatricians, and space utilization people, head of school Penny Evins said.

“We have a board of trustees at our school, and so we have a reopening committee,” Evins said. The school had eight “vision and planning committees that had to do with reopening, and they produced a plan that came to the administrative team, that we presented to one of our board subcommittees, and then to the full board, and then we operationalized that goal.”

The trustees approved the plan, she said.

Masks, temperature checks to become daily standardsThe Catholic Diocese of Richmond is planning to reopen schools with in-classroom instruction five days a week, according to a letter that the diocese’s superintendent sent to parents and members of the school community.

“Right now, our Catholic schools are reviewing their plans for the fall,” Deborah Cox, the diocese’s communications director, said in an email. More information will be available later this month, she wrote.

Kelly Lazzara, the diocese’s superintendent of schools, wrote that the schools look forward to opening the doors to students in late August.

“Each school will develop a customized mitigation health plan that includes procedures detailed in CDC guidance to promote behaviors that reduce spread, maintain healthy environments and implement operations to maintain the health and safety of the entire school community,” Lazzara wrote in her letter.

Evins said Collegiate did not want to take for granted the opportunity it had to be flexible.

“We understand that a school like ours, an independent school, is very fortunate to have the ability, the resources, the spaces, and the mindset to want to reopen,” Evins said.

The Steward School has a task force that was assembled in early March, Frank said, which serves as the coordinating body for eight planning committees working on how to manage factors in reopening such as curriculum, technology, social distancing and hygiene.

While Steward is still planning its precautions, it is certain about a few, Frank said.

“We know that we are going to adhere as closely as possible to the six feet of distance between students in classrooms,” he said.

The school also plans to require masks on campus; have regularly scheduled cleaning of classrooms and shared spaces; require everyone to take a standard battery of questions every morning to get on campus (which will include questions about fever and contact with a person with COVID-19); have new visitor protocols; and likely stagger arrival times, Frank said.

Thales Academy, a network of Pre-K through 12th grade independent, year-round schools, is opening a new campus in Glen Allen on July 20 with the options of in-person or virtual learning for the first quarter. The campus will offer kindergarten through second grade instruction but plans to expand its offerings in the future.

“We hope to have everyone attend in person after the first quarter, but we will continue to re-evaluate all operations throughout the coming weeks and months and adjust plans as necessary,” representative Holly Clark said in an email.

The school’s precautions include “daily temperature checks and symptom surveys taken before children enter the building, social distancing whenever possible, frequent hand-washing, staying within the same cohort of students and teachers throughout the day to minimize contact with others, no shared supplies, etc.,” she wrote.