Important Update to Burgundy Protocols

Dear Burgundy Community,

We have successfully held school in person thus far this year on the strength of our collective adherence to our Social Contract and protocols (and probably some good luck). As the pandemic evolves, COVID-19 is surging in areas nationally and nearby (DE, MD, PA), and variants continue to be of concern (see 4.16.21 Post article). As older age groups are mostly vaccinated, we see younger ages who are increasingly ‘out and about’ comprising a majority of infections. Therefore, our first priority must remain to continue to operate school safely in person for the final weeks of school. Accordingly, we urgently request your continued commitment to the Burgundy Social Contract and our protocols, which have drawn on CDC, VDH, AAP, and state guidance, along with peer school decisions and the needs of our community.

Relaxing any protocols at this time of heightened concern and so close to the end of the school year seems counterintuitive. Yet we’re hoping that by adopting in our protocols some of the CDC’s new guidance for vaccinated individuals we can encourage both continued vaccination and continued adherence to our protocols, which are constructed with one reason: to keep our community healthy and in school. Balancing what may be safe for one family with the safety of our full learning community, where all of our children remain unvaccinated and where many adults are not yet vaccinated, requires prioritizing the community over the individual, and our protocols remain independent of CDC guidance and more conservative. Therefore: while we are making some practical adjustments to our protocols, doing so safely and without imperiling our children or community requires doubling down on and even enhancing adherence to our Social Contract, mitigators, and safety measures.

Below is a summary of protocol changes, along with some clarifications.

UPDATED COVID-19 PROTOCOLS

Regarding visiting with other households:

• Fully vaccinated adults may visit other fully vaccinated adults outdoors or indoors from a single other household without them or their children being subject to quarantine.
• Children can visit outdoors or indoors unmasked with vaccinated and asymptomatic adults (eg. grandparents or another ‘special friend’) within a single household.
• Children, even those accompanying vaccinated adults, may not socialize unmasked indoors with children of other households (all must be masked), and they should wear masks even outdoors if a 6-foot distance can not be maintained; otherwise a quarantine is required.
• Physically distant, outdoor, or masked visits indoors, from a community health standpoint, per CDC, remain preferred even for vaccinated adults.
• Unmasked indoor gatherings of more than two vaccinated households remain off-limits; these and other restricted behavior will require students or employees to do 14-day quarantines.
• Larger gatherings, even outdoors and masked, at this time, are still discouraged, per CDC.
• A full 14-day quarantine will be required when there is an infected person in the household (ongoing in-home exposure), following close contact with a person infected with COVID-19, and/or when a person is exposed to a vaccinated person who becomes symptomatic for COVID-19. A vaccinated person will have to be isolated if they become symptomatic.

Regarding plane travel or other high-risk travel:

• Fully vaccinated adults may use plane and train travel (masked) without restrictions as well as other transportation considered higher risk, as necessary.
• Students flying or traveling by train or other travel considered higher risk may return to school only following a 14-day quarantine.
• Please note: The CDC continues expressly to recommend that unnecessary higher risk travel be deferred.