Dear Burgundy Families,

I hope you are keeping safe during this unusual and challenging summer. I want to update you on our progress toward our Reopening School Plan. Employee and parent volunteer task force members have been working tirelessly to address health protocols, facilities needs, scheduling, curricular and classroom needs, and program development for September. Expert task force members, including teachers and staff, medical professionals and scientists along with consultants, are helping us to interpret relevant data, evaluate our options, and build a robust plan for both remote learning and in-person, on-campus school. It is likely we will experience both remote and in-person scenarios during this coming school year, and our plans for each will prioritize the health and safety of our students, employees, and all Burgundy community members, while using all the innovation and creativity we can muster. Teachers this week received and began responding to Remote Learning Plan protocols and will extend those protocols into their own teaching plans. This coming week teachers will be reviewing and shaping our On-Campus Plan. The Remote Learning Plan and On-Campus Plan will be brought together in the Burgundy Reopening School Plan.

We are keeping a close eye on the changing national and regional Covid-19 landscape and its potential impact on our decisions. Like you, we wish that the trajectory of the pandemic and its local impact were clearer and more encouraging. While Northern Virginia data are comparatively good, even improving, national and regional metrics that include DC, MD, and VA have not been trending positively. Under the current circumstances and given the importance of our planning, we feel it prudent to take a little more time to consider the regional trends as we approach the start of school. We continue to plan for all possible pandemic reopening scenarios, and our estimated date for the release of the full plan is now August 14. 

At all times in our planning, we continue to assess and consider:
– The health and rate of transmission and other medical data in the communities from which we draw enrollment;
– The readiness of students and employees to return to campus;
– Our ability, given our resources, community and campus, to implement layers of mitigation to deliver the most equitable learning and student support we can;
– Covid risk mitigation strategies available according to the CDC and other guidance, including testing.

Like you, we have seen the national discourse around the reopening of schools become more complicated and polarized. We are in touch with our peer schools who are weighing similar variables. Given so many unknowns we must continue to plan for on-campus, remote learning, and blended learning. It’s important to be sure that teachers and staff have an opportunity to review and help shape our plans so we make the best and safest decisions with the fullest data informing our plans. Announcing a full plan to parents a few days further into August also allows us to project a little better what September may look like in terms of the pandemic locally.

Regarding in-person, on-campus planning we are studying or considering:
– Timing/phasing for reopening of school on campus (see below);
– Regional health data benchmarks computed with enrollment catchment area data;
– Soft reopening – half days to begin, staggered start on campus (e.g.,bringing one division back to campus at a time);
– Teaching classes outdoors (especially in younger age groups); providing professional development and training opportunities for teachers;
– Shorter regular on-campus school days, especially if we’re teaching outdoors;
– On-campus walkabouts (in small groups) for teachers and then to orient students; 
– Reopening of School Plan published on or about August 14.

Criteria for Reopening on Campus
1. Regional health data;
2. VA phased guidance;
3. Risk mitigation protocols in place in alignment with CDC, WHO, AAP and other noted guidance;
4. Appropriate staffing, cohort models;
5. Peer school decisions and rationale;
6. Burgundy community survey data (resurvey).

We appreciate your understanding of the complexity of what we are undertaking; we are striving to make both data-driven and ethical, community-minded decisions. We recognize that children benefit immensely, academically and socially, from being in school. Children and all of our teachers and staff at the same time deserve a healthy school and work environment, and some are at higher risk. Burgundy’s small class sizes and our large spaces both indoors and out allow us to consider reopening in person with distancing protocols in place. We seek to maximize our advantages and to use our best problem-solving to bring the best education we can to our students and your children, and we all appreciate that this ability is part of what we all value about Burgundy.

Thank you for your continued patience and support!

Jeff on behalf of Joanne Petty, Reopening Task Forces, and Admin Team