Covid Updates

August 2021 Covid-19 Updates

Vaccinations

At a time when there are new variants of greater contagion rates appearing across the country, we are strongly recommending that all members of our school community get the Covid-19 vaccine that is available for their age group. Vaccinations continue to be the single most effective protection against serious illness from Covid-19. Ma’ayanot will require all adults who work on campus to be vaccinated unless they have an approved medical exemption. Unvaccinated adults will be required to wear a medical grade mask at all times in the building and undergo regular Covid-19 testing.

Thank you to the vast majority of our families who responded to our Covid-19 Vaccine survey last week. We are pleased to report that over 90% of our students are fully vaccinated with others still planning to complete their vaccinations before school starts. In addition,100% of our faculty are fully vaccinated. We are confident that with this large percentage of vaccinated students and staff we will be able, b’ezrat Hashem, to offer a safe and healthy environment for everyone.

Safety Protocols

The following safety protocols will be in place at the beginning of the school year. These protocols are subject to change – with notification – at any point during the year in order to safeguard our school community.

Non-Vaccinated Students

Students who are not vaccinated will be allowed to attend school in person. However, they will be required to comply with the following protocol. ANY student who does not comply with the protocol will not be permitted to return to school.

1. Non-vaccinated students will be required to submit a negative Covid-19 test result on a weekly basis. We will accept a negative PCR test result or a negative rapid test result.
2. Non-vaccinated students will not be permitted to participate in parts of our program which involve heavy activity or intensive close contact with others. This includes PE, Athletic teams, Performing Arts, and overnight aspects of our program.
3. Non-vaccinated students will be required to wear a medical grade disposable surgical mask while in the building.
4. Non-vaccinated students may eat only outdoors during the fall. We will also have designated indoor locations during the winter season or other inclement weather.
5. Non-vaccinated students will be required to abide by full quarantine regulations after travel to locations of increased risk, as well as after an exposure to a Covid-19 positive individual.

All students who are vaccinated MUST upload their vaccination card in their Magnus Health portal (Magnus Health sign in information will be emailed shortly.) This will assure that they are permitted to participate in all activities and allow our contact tracing team to properly guide them and limit the quarantine required after travel or potential exposures.

Masking

The Governor of NJ recently announced that masking will be required for all staff and students in all K-12 schools. Therefore we will be requiring that all staff and students are masked while indoors. Students who are vaccinated will be permitted to unmask for lunch and snacks indoors.

Travel Restrictions & Quarantines

There have been increased reports of rising Covid cases in various states around the country, due to the Delta variant and its highly contagious nature. At this point we continue to recommend that each family follows the CDC and NJ State guidelines for quarantining after traveling outside of NY/ NJ. These guidelines are changing frequently and we ask that families who are traveling review the State Covid-19 recommendations here .

Please consider the following recommendations to prevent being required to quarantine before school starts, especially if your family includes non-vaccinated members:

*Travel by car when possible to avoid possible exposures on planes and in airports

*Travel only to low-risk Covid-19 locations

*Travel to, and gather in, locations where there aren’t any large crowds.

*Consider only gathering with others who are already vaccinated.

Zoom Classes

Our experience last year demonstrated that hybrid classes – where some students are present on campus and others are on zoom – are less effective for learning and therefore we will be shifting to in-person learning as our norm. Zoom will be available for students who are quarantined for a Covid-19 exposure or required to stay home for extended medical circumstances.

Lunch & Going Off Campus 

We are pleased that our Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors will once again be allowed to spend their lunch period enjoying the dining venues on Queen Anne Road and West Englewood Avenue. Unvaccinated students should dine outside only. We will track the local establishments’ dining guidelines to see if there are changes in policy relating to unvaccinated patrons. For now we understand that no distinction is in place. Should that change we will update our policy as well. Please keep in mind that in the case of a positive Covid-19 exposure, which can happen during lunch, vaccinated students will not need to quarantine, while non-vaccinated students will need to quarantine. Hopefully, in accordance with our usual policies, our Freshmen will be permitted to go off campus during their lunch period starting second semester as well.