2022-2023 Campus Opening Plan

Overview

This Opening Plan results from careful and collective planning by our Leadership Team, with significant input from our faculty and staff, administration, families, and trustees, in consultation with medical and public health community members. The plan prioritizes the health and safety of our students and employees. It is informed by data and recommendations from Public Health - Seattle & King County, Washington State Department of Health, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ultimately, these agencies’ health requirements and recommendations provide essential guidance about the return to school policies and practices.

Guidance around COVID-19 protocols in schools is still changing, and we are monitoring and responding to those decisions. This site is likely to be updated as our context changes.

Last updated August 11, 2022

Giddens Decision Making Process

In devising the Opening Plan, we continue to prioritize students educational experience and learning, their social and emotional well being, as well as their physical health. As part of this, we highly recommend to families that students be vaccinated, stay home when symptomatic, and communicate with Giddens as needed. Throughout our process, we have kept the school’s mission, vision, and values at the forefront, as well as what we know about child development and what is best for our students. In answering the questions about what we can do, we have also asked ourselves, "should we?”

Our guiding principles in this process have been:

• the health and safety of all our people - students, families, and employees
• government recommendations and restrictions
• social and emotional health and well-being
• equity and inclusive accessibility
• In-person learning with a focus on relationships and relational teaching and learning
• developmentally appropriate approaches to teaching and learning

Community Health & Safety Pledge

A successful return to campus will require all members of our community to work together to achieve a common goal. That’s why we will be asking everyone to sign a return to school agreement to commit to doing their part to keep our community healthy and safe. Your commitment reinforces our shared responsibility to each other that extends from our campus to our homes. Your participation will have a major impact on preventing the spread of COVID-19 in the Giddens community. Therefore we ask that all students, faculty, and families agree to the following, whether on or off-campus:

• Follow federal, state, and local guidelines around COVID-19. This may include quarantine, travel, physical distancing, vaccinations, and facial coverings.
• Staying home when symptomatic.
• Informing Giddens School administration at health@giddensschool.org if a member of the family has been in close contact with an individual who tested positive for COVID-19

While Giddens cannot eliminate the possibility of someone contracting COVID-19, adherence to the above steps can go a long way to help reduce risk and mitigate spread.