Clarification on your last email about MS

[paoloparon]

Dear ICS,

with reference to the email sent to MS Families, copied here below, I feel the need to ask for a clarification.

This request is due to the fact that we don't live in families which are subdivided by grade. Many families have their kids in different grades, we have house helpers, and we have a social life, even if limited due to the circumstances.

Can you please clarify the following points:

1) has any teacher being tested for Covid?

2) has any teacher being resulted Covid positive?

3) if not, when will you have the results?

4) on which base ('precautionary' is not enough) did you decide to keep MS closed for the whole week and not, for example, until you get the teacher's covid results?

I realize that we are -all- in unprecedented times and that this is adding some kind of tension to our normal life, therefore I would like also to ask for a clearer and more detailed communication with the parent community. 

In particular a communication where the reasons behind the decision taken are shared with what you call the Community. 

Sometimes the communication sent out by the ICS Management feels like a top-down approach where you only inform us parents, but don't share the steps taken to reach a certain conclusion.

Many thanks and best regards,

Paolo

*******

10 November 2020

Dear MS Families,

This is to inform you that we will continue synchronous online learning for the remainder of this week. This is a precautionary measure and at this time we do not have evidence of students being exposed.

As always, we recommend that you monitor your child/yourself for symptoms by checking their temperature as well as taking the normal precautions such as wearing a mask over your nose, mouth and chin snuggly, and washing your hands with soap and water after toileting, before and after eating, after coughing/ sneezing or touching your face or another person. Due to the possible exposure, we encourage you to have your child maintain a physical distance of 2 meters from all other people outside of your family bubble.

Thank you for bearing with us as we organize this short term precaution to ensure the safety of your family and the entire ICS Addis community. 

If you have any questions, please respond to this email or email or reach out to Principal Kristine Adelsboell kristine....@icsaddis.org or MS Deputy Principal Chris McBride at chris....@icsaddis.org 

[ICS Comms]

HI Paolo,

Thanks for using the Parent Forum and for your email.

We hope we can provide some clarity. 

As mentioned in the 8 November email a small group of teachers were exposed to the COVID virus and are currently being tested.  These teachers were in ES and MS divisions.  Since information came to us on Sunday evening that some teachers had been exposed over the weekend, we started our contact tracing late Sunday and started testing on Monday. We initially moved the middle school online for Monday and Tuesday and made the decision yesterday to continue online learning for the week.  We did so as a precautionary measure.  Contact tracing is ongoing and we are still waiting on test results. While test results are available within 24 hours, it is taking time to get the test appointments, which is taking longer than we had hoped.  We want to ensure not to risk exposing students while we are waiting for test results to come back. At this time, we do not have any evidence of student exposure in middle school (outside of immediate teacher family members).  The exposure happened over the weekend and not on campus with students.

Thank you,

ICS Communications

[paoloparon]

Dear ICS,

many thanks for you explanation.

However it is still not clear to me the following point. I give you a simple and practical example: we have three kids: one in ES one in MS and one in HS, and we all live under the same roof. I believe that this is not the only family with children in different division.

If the MS kid is precautionary in online learning mode, and considering that we all live in the same house, how should we behave regarding sending to school the other two? 

Please can you explain better the decision chain that you adopted to close MS and G1 only, and not at least asking families with kids in MS and other divisions to stay home as well? 

 

I appreciate the fact that the school works on precautionary base, but I don't see consistency in the application of this criteria. 

Best Regards,

Paolo

[ICS Comms]

Dear Paolo,

We have moved grade 1 and middle school student to online learning to mitigate the spread of the virus and to keep our students/your children safe.  That is the criteria and the basis of our decisions. I am sorry you don't see that or it hasn't come through in our communications.

 

If any child has been exposed or needs to stay home we would notify the parents first and our community.  In no situation would we allow students to come to campus if we had evidence that students were at risk.  In no situation would we withhold any information that pertains to the health and safety of our students/your children.  

We informed grade 1 parents and middle school parents and our whole community that we were going online for Grade 1 and middle school students because of potential exposure to COVID. The decisions to move grade 1 and middle school students online is very simple and clear, it was and continues to be to keep our students safe, that's it.

As stated in multiple emails, there is no evidence that MS students have been exposed to COVID while on campus.  We moved middle school students online because some teachers were exposed to the virus over the weekend and we wanted to ensure our teachers could get properly tested and that middle school students remained safe.  Testing is taking longer than expected and so that is why we extended online learning for the week.  Again, at this time, there is no evidence that middle school students have been exposed, and by staying online this whole week, we have enough time for proper testing and we continue to keep middle school students safe.  We do not want to bring middle school students back on campus before all the testing and results are completed.  So to keep our students safe, we remain online for the week.

For Grade 1, we had evidence that students may have been exposed.  So we moved grade 1 online to allow some students and teachers to test properly. After proper testing, we were able to return to campus learning for 1B.  We continue online learning for 1A because we are still waiting on tests.  So to keep our students safe, we remain online for 1A.

If your children are not in 1A or in middle school, they can continue with on campus learning. We all have different levels of risk and  you are welcome to keep your children home if you are uncomfortable with any situation.  We all have the same goals, keeping our students safe while continuing our learning programs.

Best,

Kristi Williams

Executive Director of Strategic Programs

[eskedar.bekele]

Thank you so much ICS for all things you continue to do to keep our children and the community safe. Having said this, I just have one related question. As a family, we were wondering why the exposed middle school teachers were not quarantined while the students continued their campus learning? Was there a reason for this? Or are the majority exposed to the virus? Thank you! 

Best, 

Eskedar 

[ICS Comms]

Hi Eskedar,

The middle school teachers have been staying home until they could get tested and no middle school student has been on campus all week, so they have not been exposed.

Thanks,

ICS Communications