October 1, 2020

Dear Barrie Middle and Upper School Parents and Students,

Thank you so much for your role in launching a successful 2020-2021 school year. We are grateful for the partnership with our students, faculty, and parents in creating a safe and robust learning environment.

We write to you to share an update on reopening the Middle and Upper School in person.

In the last weeks, our COVID-19 Task Force has assessed the health and educational risks and benefits of in-person versus distance learning. After careful consideration, the Task Force has recommended a plan designed to balance critical safety concerns with the value of limited and focused campus based activities.

What this Means in Practice:

Between now and late January, the Middle and Upper School will:

Remain fully online for all regularly scheduled academic classes and school based programming events.
Begin bringing back small cohorts of students to campus for optional events that support social-emotional connections and holistic well-being. These groups will be small (5-20 students) and health and safety protocols will be strictly followed. We are also exploring whether small groups can return to campus for discrete academic activities that require the use of campus facilities. You can expect more details soon about these plans.

Our decision to remain virtual for classes rests on a number of important factors:

Montgomery County has still not met metrics for recommended in-person schooling at full capacity for large cohorts of students. The size of our "Learning Village" (110 students and 25 faculty and staff) makes these metrics even more important to consider, as we would suffer more risk of transmission within a large group.
As we enter cold and flu season, health officials throughout our region expect an increase in both confirmed COVID-19 cases and required precautionary closures as a result of COVID-19 symptoms.
Barrie Lower School students and teachers have found considerable success reopening in Learning Villages of 12 to 20 students. However, as we have all seen from the communications on the precautionary quarantines over the last few weeks, frequent closures (ranging from 2-14 days) are an inevitable reality that will be very disruptive to the academic momentum we have established so far this year. From what we understand, the few independent middle and upper schools that have opened this fall are experiencing untenable levels of quarantine disruption, which will only grow more challenging as we enter cold and flu season.

Forging a Balanced Approach: Throughout our assessment process, our goal has been to prioritize and maintain an uninterrupted academic experience for students while allowing for a small number of intentional and focused on-campus activities to supplement learning and social-emotional well-being. We believe this middle path offers students, faculty, and staff important opportunities to forge connections and maintain momentum as we face this pandemic together.

Timeline Moving Forward: Between now and the mid winter, we plan to reassess area health conditions and our program of virtual classes and on-campus activities. We will communicate any changes in late-January.

Thank you for all of your support as we chart our course in this very unprecedented year. As always, please reach out to us if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Kristin Arndt
Head of Middle and Upper School

Jon Kidder
Head of School