Seneca Academy is firmly committed to do everything within our power to welcome students, families, and staff back on campus as soon as it is deemed safe to do so. Our educational philosophy is deeply rooted in an understanding that children learn best in the context of their relationships with teachers who can provide a sense of safety and inspire them to wonder and explore. We also understand that part of their development and learning process is inherently tied to their relationship with their peers.To that end, one of our priorities, as we plan for and move through next year, will be to maximize the opportunities for safe, in-person learning.
With that said, the safety and health of our entire village will always remain our top priority. Throughout the summer, the Seneca Academy team, along with appropriate consultants, will be carefully studying recommendations from the CDC as well as from State and County officials. Based on that guidance, we will be making contingency plans that meet our goal of maximizing on-site learning while doing everything we can to follow best practices and guidance for maintaining the safety of our students and staff.
Although we very much understand that families would prefer more immediate certainty about what next year will look like, our ability to finalize plans unfortunately depends in part on factors, such as guidance from our State regulators and County officials, that are outside of our control. What we can do at this point is offer some transparency in how we are going about planning and what we are considering. As we get more information from government officials and are able to get closer to more definitive plans, we will of course let you know.
Based on guidance from the CDC, the state of Maryland, and the American Academy of Pediatrics, Seneca Academy will be implementing the following policies and procedures upon opening for the 2020-2021 school year. These guidelines are subject to change if local, state or federal guidance changes.
- On-campus learning will take place in small cohorts (10-12 students). Each cohort will have their own dedicated classroom capable of ensuring social distancing guidelines can be met (a distance of six feet between people). Specials teachers and office support staff, as needed, will rotate into the classrooms. Rotating teachers will comply with the general standards of using face coverings, washing hands upon entering and between contacts with children, and using gloves and/or shields as necessary.
- Strict hand-washing procedures will be taught and enforced throughout the day.
- More frequent cleaning and disinfecting of high-touch surfaces with EPA-approved products will occur throughout the day.
- In keeping with state and local guidelines, students over aged 2 will be required to wear family-provided masks or cloth face coverings, with time given for safe “mask breaks” whenever feasible. To prepare them for that, we strongly encourage parents to have children practice wearing masks/cloth face coverings, to find ways to normalize this as much as possible, and to teach children how to put masks/cloth face coverings on and take them off safely.
- All adults will be required, when in proximity to others, to wear face coverings or be behind screens or shields. (The latter options are important for young children who may be scared as well as for teaching early literacy skills, where it is important for students to see a teacher’s face).
- Students, faculty, and staff will be the only ones permitted in the building except in case of emergency. Parents will not be allowed in the building, except for during the Before-School Conference and Back to School Night, when we will be letting limited individuals in at assigned entry times (see Back-to-School letter from teachers).
- At-home health assessments will occur daily for all students and staff, including a temperature check and a screening of symptoms. Individuals with any COVID-19 symptoms or fever will not be allowed to enter the building until they are cleared in writing by a physician. (More information will be provided in August.)
As we approach the start of the year, we will share digitally a copy of our Parent Handbook which will provide more details about these and other COVID-related policies and procedures, as well as those that govern our more typical operations.
Below, you will find more information on our objectives, process, and considerations for the reopening of school in the fall, organized around some Frequently Asked Questions. This will exist as a living document that will be amended as more definitive information becomes available.
As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to us if it would help to speak directly.
FAQs About 2020-2021 Planning
What are your core objectives as you make plans for the fall?
In all of our planning, we are prioritizing three core objectives:
- Strict adherence to policies, procedures, and official guidances to keep our students, families, faculty, and staff healthy and safe.
- Ensuring we deliver on the promise to provide an academically rigorous and developmentally appropriate education that preserves the wonder of childhood for all of our students; and
- Supporting all of our families to the greatest extent possible throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Will school meet in person in the fall?
The Seneca team is doing everything within its power to welcome students, families, faculty, and staff back on campus as soon as it is deemed safe to do so. However, just like every school in the DMV, Seneca Academy will not be in a position to act unilaterally on this front.
Since this public health crisis began, we have continued to follow rapidly evolving guidance from the CDC, the Governor of Maryland, the Maryland State Board of Health, the Maryland State Board of Education, and local authorities in the surrounding areas. Given the nature of this pandemic, we anticipate that operational status and guidelines for the reopening of schools may continue to shift in the coming weeks and months. As such, the school is preparing for numerous scenarios intended to maximize in-person learning opportunities for all of our children in a safe environment, taking into consideration all available guidance.
What will be the defining factor for reopening school?
Since this public health crisis began, we have continued to follow rapidly evolving guidance from the CDC, the Governor of Maryland, the Maryland State Board of Health, the Maryland State Board of Education, and local authorities in the surrounding areas. Any physical reopening of the school is contingent upon our ability to meet the guidelines issued first and foremost by our local authorities. Maryland’s Recovery Plan for Education also gives detailed guidance on these points.
The CDC has also now released its guidance on school reopening. The official release includes ensuring any opening is consistent with state and local orders, but also recommends taking into consideration children and employees who may be at higher risk for severe illness and the ability to screen for symptoms upon arrival at school, among other things.
What are the best- and worst-case scenarios for the 2020-2021 school year?
The Seneca team is doing everything within its power to welcome students, families, faculty, and staff back on campus as soon as it is deemed safe to do so. However, just like every school in the DMV, Seneca Academy will not be in a position to act unilaterally on this front.
Seneca Academy is looking for every possible way to maximize in-person learning opportunities for all children. To that end, we are:
- creating intentionally small classes that allow for social distancing;
- implementing enhanced cleaning protocols and procedures to ensure a clean classroom environment for all children;
- looking at adjustments to daily schedules to maximize in-person learning and limit the commingling of classes at times like pick up and drop off;
- reviewing our school health policies to ensure consistency with the latest guidance as it relates to temperature and other coronavirus-related symptoms in children.
Additionally, we are working with the teaching staff to enhance distance learning curriculum for all classes, if that is once again where we find ourselves at any point in the next school year. To date, our teachers have made admirable strides accounting for every possible need that an inclusive school with a diverse community may have. They have been mindful of unique parent, student, and caregiver needs and will continue to find the best ways to bring Seneca Academy into your homes, both through synchronous learning and asynchronous content development. With three months over the summer to plan for this potential outcome, we will be reviewing closely all that has worked to date and will continue to evolve our offering to ensure the most engaging and enjoyable experience possible for our students and their families, if we need to return to distance learning for short periods of time next year.
Would Seneca Academy consider opening earlier in August for the 2020-2021 school year?
Our top priority for next year will be ensuring the health and safety of all students and their families, as well as staff and faculty. Although some schools have openly discussed reopening earlier than anticipated, for Seneca Academy to do so would constrain our ability to make any necessary adjustments to our physical space as well as our ability to ensure that our faculty and staff are adequately prepared for the 2020-2021 school year.
Prior to the start of every school year, faculty and staff gather on campus for professional development, discussions about best practices in early childhood education, and collaborative opportunities related to curriculum development. In addition to those important conversations, this year we must account for retraining of all faculty and staff related to enhanced health, safety, and cleaning protocols and procedures to be maintained in all classrooms. This restraint in and of itself will be time-intensive, but additionally, the anticipated continued restrictions on the size of gatherings will mean that this retraining will likely have to occur over an extended timeframe, making an earlier start to the school year challenging.
Has Seneca Academy adopted new policies and procedures that would allow for a safer in-person experience?
Our top priority for next year will be ensuring the health and safety of all students and their families, as well as staff and faculty. We are currently reviewing all available guidance on health and safety protocols and procedures that we will need to put in place for the coming school year. We anticipate enhanced procedures on numerous fronts, including:
- Cleaning of all classrooms, with special attention placed on frequently-touched surfaces;
- Establishing requirements for temperature-taking for students, faculty, and staff;
- Ensuring access to classrooms through assigned entrances to lessen hallway traffic;
- Monitoring for coronavirus-related symptoms in students, faculty, and staff; and
- Limiting in-classroom presence to only students and their teachers.
Will children be required to wear masks?
Seneca Academy will follow the guidance of local authorities and governing agencies regarding whether masks are appropriate for children to wear in an educational setting. In preparation for this potential requirement, our faculty and staff are working to develop content that will help to make such a requirement explainable and less threatening for children.
What will distance learning look like for each age group?
While we will be sharing more information on our evolving distance learning curriculum in the weeks and months to come, it will be based on a foundation which to date has included:
- Synchronous learning opportunities including daily class meetings; “specials” including music, art, P.E., and Spanish; weekly small group activities and regular one-on-ones for students with their teaching team; and
- Asynchronous content development and activity guidance through virtual learning platforms.
What resources will be made available to parents in a distance learning environment?
We recognize the stress and anxiety that parents are under as a result of this ongoing pandemic. Whether juggling working from home with your children’s needs, navigating different distance learning schedules for multiple children, or just feeling the weight of the uncertainty brought on by this unprecedented public health crisis, we want to support our parents in any way possible.
In addition to the content developed by our teacher teams for asynchronous learning opportunities at home, we are working to give resource and platform lists to all families for use in synchronous learning. We are also here to provide any parent who needs it with support securing the technology necessary to access both our synchronous and asynchronous distance learning content.
Finally, Dr. Michelle Parker, child psychologist and Head of School, is available to all parents for any needs they may have, whether related to their child’s learning experience, a loss they may have suffered, increased anxiety, or simply someone with whom to talk.
Is the school considering any reduction in tuition for next year given the potential return to distance learning?
As a nonprofit independent school that operates without the safety net of an endowment, we are not immune to the impact of a contracting economy. We have already weathered the storm of a potential permanent closure, thanks to our village and a partnership with Georgetown Hill, but the uncertainty inherent in the COVID-19 pandemic leaves us without much of a safety net, which precludes a reduction in tuition fees. To date, we have received an increase in requests for financial support for the next school year, and we anticipate more.
In any given year, tuition revenue accounts for approximately 80% of Seneca Academy’s operating budget. Like most nonprofit independent schools, with the exception of those with an endowment, the remaining 20% comes from charitable contributions to Seneca Academy’s Annual Fund and the annual Auction and Gala (which had to be canceled last year). As we look to the economic realities of the coming year, we must account for a level of financial uncertainty in these supplementary budget vehicles.
Additionally, increased health and safety protocols; procurement of exponential amounts of materials such as masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and disinfectant; and potential hiring of additional faculty to allow for decreased class size will all have significant impacts on the school’s operating budget.
Financially, we have two core priorities as a school: support families in our community with increased financial assistance to the greatest extent possible; and maintain employment and full benefits for all of our committed teachers and staff, regardless of the uncertainty of the upcoming year.
The Seneca Academy Board of Trustees has the primary responsibility to ensure that the school is fiscally sound. While we recognize the very difficult financial decisions families are making when it comes to investment in a Seneca education for their children, similarly, the school is facing difficult choices as well.
As the school continues to assess the impact of COVID-19 on revenue for the coming year, the Board must consider how a reduction in tuition would impact our ability to:
- Deliver on our aforementioned financial priorities (increased financial assistance and maintenance of employment and full compensation and benefits for all Seneca teachers and staff);
- Maintain the increased health and safety protocols required to ensure a safe environment for our children in the classroom;
- Maintain the fiscal health necessary for the school to sustain and maintain through the duration of this crisis; and
- Hire additional teachers and staff to ensure we can meet guidelines related to decreased class size.
Doesn’t the school save money by not being on campus?
The physical closure of the campus has limited cost benefits related to certain items like snacks and classroom materials. However, even while the school is physically closed to students and teachers, the mortgage, as well as bills for heating, electricity, and water, must be paid. We are committed to maintaining employment and full benefits for all of our contracted teachers and staff throughout this time. We have also shouldered added cost in the adoption of new technology and software to make distance learning possible for all of our students.
Doesn’t the PPP Loan Seneca Academy received give an excess amount of money in the budget for next year?
After careful consideration and review, and with the approval of the Board of Trustees, Seneca Academy applied for and was awarded a Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program loan, which is funded through the federal CARES Act. This funding is intended to offset a portion of anticipated revenue loss, anticipated increased need for tuition assistance, anticipated additional costs in health and safety protocols, and the resources needed for additional procurement of PPE. This funding will be essential to allow us to continue to meet our payroll and benefit obligations to all staff and faculty throughout the coming year.
Additionally, while we are hopeful that we will be able to meet the requirements for this loan to be forgiven, loan forgiveness is not guaranteed at this time.
How is Seneca Academy addressing the needs of immunocompromised children?
Seneca Academy is committed to ensuring that all of our students are protected and provided for in this uncertain environment. If you have any unique concerns about your child’s health and safety, we ask you to share those with Dr. Michelle Parker, Head of School, so that we may ensure that the needs of your child are accounted for in our planning.
