Update on the Covid-19 pandemic
6/4/2021Dear NOVA community,
Update as of June 4th:
Per new government guidelines in regards to outdoor mask usage, the Health and Safety Committee has decided to relax mask protocols for Elementary school students, by making masks optional during recess, when students are under adult supervision. This means that when students are outside and distanced from one another, they would be able to have their masks off. Indoor mask usage requirements will remain in force, with students expected to have a mask in their possession at all times, should they be required to use it. Our current mask protocols will also remain in place for all staff and Secondary students.
Update as of May 28th:
The Health and Safety Committee (HSC) has been carefully tracking the current low levels of transmission and has decided to pause the administration of antigen testing for students in grades 9 through 12 until the end of this school year. The HSC is looking to provide additional policy updates as the situation changes on the ground, and most importantly in preparation for next school year.
Update as of May 21st:
It has been a month and a half since we’ve seen our last covid-19 positive community case. More importantly, two months have passed since such a case has come on-campus and affected classmates, sending them into quarantine. This is another clear signal of the continually improving situation. That has been the case irrespective of the extension in the school day and the ever growing number of students attending in-person classes. We’re hopeful that, with your assistance, we will be supported in sustaining this positive momentum, going on to end the year on a positive note.
Update as of May 14th:
Yesterday the CDC just came out with new mask guidelines for fully immunised individuals based on most recent scientific data coming out of the US, related to their immunisation effort and current spread of the virus. Fully vaccinated individuals are no longer required to wear a mask in either an indoor or outdoor setting, with several exceptions. These guidelines should be soon followed by specific ones related to schools.
Although these developments pertain to the US, they are very much applicable to our local reality. Provided a continued robust mass immunisation campaign, coupled with the already high virus prevalence amongst the population, and no virus variants jeopardizing this progress, we could be looking at a clear exit strategy from the pandemic.
Update as of May 7th:
With our staff beginning to receive their second covid-19 vaccine shots, we’ve just reached another important threshold in our reopening efforts. By June over 80% of our staff would be considered fully immunised, two weeks out from their second dose, providing a more optimistic outlook on the incoming school year.
At our last Health and Safety Committee meeting, the new immunisation reality and improving epidemiological conditions, were a reason to introduce a new policy related to fully vaccinated staff and students, as well as revise our current policies on travel and social gatherings, with students and staff no longer required to undergo a quarantine, but encouraged to continue exercising caution. With the everchanging pandemic landscape it is important that we also adapt as a community, and we’re happy we can begin to relax some of our stringent policies, which were initially necessary to keep our community safe.
We’re happy to report that all Secondary students that are considered Covid warriors (up to 90 days from infection) will be allowed to continually come to school in both yellow and gray cohorts without the need for antigen testing. In addition, based on our BL model for 9-11 survey, a group of 40 students will also be joining us for continuous in-person classes starting from this Monday, May 10th.
In addition, we would like to confirm our Elementary School school day extension starting from Monday, May 17th. The overwhelmingly positive response to our ES parent survey, encouraged us to undertake this step before the end of the school year.
Update as of April 30th:
In our efforts to consider extending the school day for our ES students, we have shared a survey with ES parents. Once we solicit interest, and provided Covid-19 numbers continue to improve, we hope to provide this school day extension starting from Monday, May 17th.
On the Secondary front, we’re also working on encouraging a greater student on-campus presence, as we believe conditions provide for it. Secondary leadership will soon be reaching out to solicit feedback by families of grade 9-11 students, who would like their children to continually come to campus, compared to families who would prefer their children remain in DL until the year’s end.
Though IB exams have been cancelled for this year (May 2021), our AP students are ready to sit for their May exams (offered by the College Board, as in-person as well as digital exams). The AP Coordinator, Ms. Perunovska, and our admin team are ready to support students sitting in-person exams. We wish them excellent results, come July 2021.
Update as of April 23rd:
We’re excited about what is in store in the coming weeks and months. The warmer weather and improving epidemiological numbers would serve as the basis of having a more dynamic campus life, filled with activities and events. As more members of our community are getting immunised, including students, we’re beginning to revise our Reopening plan, to reflect this reality, with immunised members benefiting from less restrictive measures. We plan to inform you of these changes in the coming weeks, as the Health and Safety Committee begins implementing them.
Update as of April 16th:
With our sights set on next school year, we’ve reflected on the current year. It is impressive to note that to date, our Health and Safety Committee has processed more than 400 individual cases related to covid, including proximate and close contacts, positive individuals, and travel and social gathering cases; while ensuring there is limited to no impact on our community. This suggests the sheer magnitude of our efforts to keep our community safe. Parallel to this process we’re happy to report that 80% of our staff has received at least one vaccine shot, ensuring our staff is provided with another layer of protection.
Update as of April 9th:
We’re currently experiencing the peak of the spring wave, with the number of cases growing at a decreasing rate. The effective reproduction number of the virus is approaching 1, meaning every infected person on average infects no more than another person. We expect that in the coming days this rate will drop below 1, with the wave effectively rounding a corner and beginning it’s slow downward slope.
Due to these factors the CMT has reached a decision to shift to distance learning for both divisions from Monday, April 12th until Wednesday, April 14th, with ES students and one cohort of SS students being invited back on campus for the blended learning model from Thursday, April 15th. More division specific details will be shared from Monday onwards. Secondary students attending on-campus classes, will need to undergo their required antigen screen testing on that Thursday, April 15th.
Update as of April 2nd:
We know that many are excited about the upcoming spring break to have some time to relax, rejuvenate, and restore in order to finish the school year strong. We would ask that you take precautions in both your socializations and travel plans in order to remain safe. If you engage in either, we ask that you enter into a precautionary quarantine per our major Reopening protocols. We care about each and every one of our families and want to encourage all to be safe during this time of increasing covid numbers and variants. The Crisis Management Team is closely watching daily infection and positivity rates, and will be sharing its decision in regards to how classes will resume after spring break. Be on the lookout for an update next Friday, April 9th.
We’re continuing the immunisation efforts for our staff and hope that families are also considering their options as vaccines become more widely available. We can all contribute to the pandemic’s outcome by doing our own part.
Update as of March 19th:
Although we’re seeing an ever increasing number of covid-19 cases, we’ve been successful at mitigating the difficulties presented, assisted by the timely and open communication from our families, the commitment of our staff and students to abide by the school’s safety protocols and the diligent work of our HSC and CMT. We do anticipate that conditions will further worsen in the coming weeks, however remain committed to keeping the school open for all grade levels, provided the government doesn’t reach a lockdown decision.
We're happy to report that we’re going to be reintroducing in-person music and art classes in the ES division, within the existing blended learning schedule. We are also planning to extend the length of the school day by an additional 40 minutes, once conditions provide for it. You can expect more information about these changes from your Elementary principal.
Update as of March 12th:
Although March has given us renewed hope that we’re finally turning a corner on the pandemic, the current numbers of infections are a sobering reminder that we cannot let our guard down. We’ve witnessed minor issues relating to the strict adherence to our safety and health protocols and we must insist that we continue our cautious and dedicated approach so we can have a successful completion of the school year. We want to ensure the school remains open, welcoming students and staff on campus in the coming weeks, especially as we’re in the midst of the spring wave.
Update as of March 5th:
I’m happy to report that at this week’s Crisis Management Team meeting, it was decided to complete the school’s reopening process by welcoming grade 11 students (yellow cohort) back on campus starting this Monday, March 8, and grade 12 students (grey cohort) next Monday, March 15. Details about the re-entry protocols and procedures should have already been shared with grade 11 students and will be shared with grade 12 students prior to their return to campus.
We thank everyone that reached out, and have shared their perspectives on our school reopening efforts. We fully understand the incredibly challenging times we’re living in, especially when parents try to make a decision whether to have their child(ren) return to school or remain home. These decisions are only more complicated when considering the currently worsening epidemiological situation. We however believe that this might be our remaining window of opportunity to invite our oldest learners back on campus, while making this experience meaningful for them. Decisions could be potentially reversed if conditions continue to deteriorate, or a city or country wide-lockdown is enacted.
Our current blended learning model allows for families to opt for the model they would be most comfortable with. If a student and their family feel more comfortable remaining in DL for the foreseeable future, we would keep ensuring that they feel supported and that their learning is not impacted. However we feel equally compelled to provide this opportunity for families that are eager to have their children come for some in-person learning.
Update as of February 26th:
It’s been an exciting week, with the successful reintroduction of our grade 9 students. We were able to do so, at almost the one year mark from when we had initially transitioned to distance learning. Over this year we were able to learn, grow and adapt as a community, to finally welcome students back, prepared for the challenges the pandemic presented for this specific age group. We are continuing this process by extending an invitation for our grade 9 and 10 gray cohorts for this Monday, March 1st, followed by grade 11 and 12 students, a decision to be officially confirmed at our upcoming CMT meeting on Wednesday, March 3rd.
I wanted to thank our Crisis Management Team (CMT) and Health and Safety Committee (HSC) members for working tirelessly since the beginning of the pandemic to ensure we reach this threshold; supported by our administration, security, nursing, maintenance and custodian teams. Of course, none of this would have been possible without our dedicated secondary faculty rising to the occasion and again adapting to the new instructional circumstances brought forth by blended learning. They had their Elementary School colleagues to thank who had initially “broken the ice”.
Update as of February 17th:
The Crisis Management Team (CMT) made a decision on the staggered reopening of the remaining grades currently fully in distance learning (9th-12th). This coming Monday, February 22nd we’re going to be inviting the YELLOW cohort of 9th grade students back to school. The week after, Monday, March 1st, we’ll be expecting students in both the grade 9 and 10 GRAY cohort. We’re tentatively planning on bringing grade 11 students the week of March 8th-12th, with grade 12 joining them the week after starting from the week of March 15th-19th. Grade 9 students and families should expect more division specific information coming your way tomorrow, February 18th, while grade 10 students and families can expect further information on Monday, February 22nd. Please be mindful and follow carefully all stated instructions, as they would be a requirement for each and every student transitioning to blended learning.
Update as of February 12th:
With a successful on-campus reintegration of students in grades 6-8, we have now shifted our focus on the Upper Secondary School reopening. Families in grades 9-12 should expect a survey on their preferred mode of learning this coming Monday, February 15th, and a Crisis Management Team decision about which grade level(s) to invite back on campus, on Wednesday, February 17th. We expect to welcome those invited from Monday, February 22nd.
The Health and Safety Committee met this Thursday, February 11th, and decided to revise the close contact quarantine policy, by requesting that students/staff who have been exposed to a positive person remain home for 14 days, and return to school without a PCR test, provided they are symptom free 24 hours before their return. Our change from the 10 days quarantine and a required PCR test, was based on recent parental requests, and in order to better align our policy with the quarantine decisions parents were being issued by the State Sanitary Health Inspectorate.
Planning for next school year is already well underway. We’re in the midst of scheduling and sectioning, and are working on our overseas recruitment for several open positions. We have also been able to finalise the academic calendar for 2021-22. You can expect more specific information relating to next year coming in March.
Update as of February 5th:
Our first week of having 7th and 8th grade students back on campus was an exciting one. It was a long time in the making, but well worth the wait. We’re equally excited to see the second (yellow) cohort of grade 7 and 8 students come for their week of blended learning. The success of the reintroduction of these classes cannot be underscored, as it will be used as a necessary precondition to invite upper grade levels. Provided conditions remain as is, the CMT would soon meet to decide whether to invite higher grades back on campus. Such an invitation could occur immediately after our February break, as soon as Monday, February 22nd. A follow-up survey will be sent to parents of grade 9-12 students the week of February 15th, to assist us in making this decision.
Wanted to thank the HSC and CMT representatives, as well as the 100+ parents who attended this week’s Parent town hall meeting in regards to Secondary blended learning. For the ones unable to attend, please find the video of the meeting, and a link to the actual presentation with useful summaries of our school’s safety protocols and supporting data. It was an opportunity to share our preparations for welcoming all Secondary students back on campus, but also hear recommendations on how we can improve the process.
Update as of January 29th:
There has been compounding scientific evidence that our school’s gradual reopening plan is the right course of action. The US Center for Disease Control has further reiterated this message: “there is accumulating data now that with high face mask compliance, and distancing and cohorting of students to minimize the total number of contacts, we can minimize the amount of transmission in schools.”
As we’re learning of new strains of the virus which might impact transmissibility, we need to double down on our safety protocols and more specifically our mask mandate. Please review our existing policy and also do take into consideration that masks with a valve, bandanas, neck gaiters and scarfs do not provide a sufficient level of protection and are not to be used. We’re going to be reminding students in the coming weeks of this expectation and at some point refuse admission on campus whenever it continues to be the case.
Update as of January 22nd:
The CMT met this last Thursday, January 21st, and decided to continue its reopening efforts by inviting grades 6-8 back on campus. Grade 6 students are invited back from this coming Monday, January 25th, as they’ve already been back to campus and will immediately be ready to recommence learning. Grade 7 and 8 students will be invited to campus next week to complete their onboarding process (being introduced to safety protocols and their new schedule, pick-up required paperwork, and connect their devices to the school’s network). On Monday, February 1st they’ll commence with their blended learning schedule. Families and students in these grades will receive more specific guidance in the coming week.
Update as of December 11th:
Here are a couple of timelines and dates you should take note of:
Winter break - December 21st - January 8th
We have scheduled two weeks of distance learning classes following the break - January 11th-15th and January 18th-23th
For a proper distance from our holiday celebrations and travel, although we encourage families to refrain from both
The Crisis Management Team will decide on grade level reopenings, considering current epidemiological numbers, government approval, community feedback (surveys), and school preparedness
Families will receive the updated Secondary blended schedule, based on which will begin inviting students back to campus
Start of second semester - Monday, January 25th
Update as of December 4th:
The Secondary school leadership has begun working on further modifications to the Secondary blended schedule, that will allow us to slowly bring back all grade levels to campus in a cautious and controlled manner. We intend to commence this process after the two weeks of school-wide distance learning, after the winter break, at the beginning of the second semester (Monday, January 25th). The reopening pace will depend on the same criteria we’ve set out from day one: current epidemiological situation including government approval, school preparedness, and parent feedback. You should expect more details in upcoming posts especially as we near the beginning of the second semester.
Update as of November 20th:
Let us remind you that if you have any questions or concerns you can always direct them to the Health and Safety Committee (hsc@nova.edu.mk). We try to respond within an ambitious timeframe realizing the welfare of community members takes precedent. We’ve expanded our return to campus policy, allowing students to remain in quarantine for a total of 20 days since first contact with the infectious person, in order to come back to school without a PCR test.
In order to ensure proper ventilation of classrooms, while managing indoor air quality, we’re going to be introducing a second air purifier into classrooms, during the heating season. This will allow for windows to be open for at least 10-15 minute, at the beginning of each class. We performed an internal study on how to best manage classroom air quality, to arrive at this conclusion.
This is probably the year when we need to reconsider all of our social engagements and family gatherings, as the latest wave of infections has been primarily driven by such activity. Although this might be very difficult, consider it as an investment in future such celebrations. The vaccine is here, but now the challenge remains to ensure we remain healthy until we have access to it.
Update as of November 13th:
More so than covid-19 infections, staffing issues arising from precautionary quarantine, have made it very difficult to continue delivering the blended model for our grade levels on campus. Next week will be shifting temporarily to distance learning for our grade 6 students as we anticipate the return of faculty. We’re also seeing the strain placed on our Elementary teachers not just teaching their classes but providing numerous substitutions. We’re going to be introducing a schedule change for Elementary commencing from Monday, November 23rd. This will limit the specialty classes students will have in the first half of the school day to only PE/Dance, delivered in the school's auditoriums, and the rest on-line in the afternoon. The change will also shorten the transition to distance learning from home by 30 minutes starting from 1:30pm. Although this change might be disruptive, we believe it’s warranted to further enforce the bubble approach to grade level groups, in order to limit the risk of exposure to specialties who are coming in contact with multiple grade levels.
Update as of November 6th:
With the ever increasing number of cases in N.Macedonia, we anticipate more on campus cases. In order to sustain our efforts, we’re looking at changes to our Elementary blended learning schedule, to minimize the cross sharing of specialties amongst grade levels. You can expect information in the coming week from your division principal. These changes will have an impact on the student’s school schedule, in order to ensure we can continue with on-campus learning. We hope together with other positive developments, we would be able to extend on campus learning until winter break. We’ve gained valuable experience, that we hope to utilize for bringing Secondary students on campus down the road.
The Health and Safety Committee met this Thursday, November 5th, to reconsider changes to our close contact quarantine policy, by reducing the length of time from 14 to 10 days, based on latest research, and also introduced a new policy on air pollution and our ability to effectively ventilate classroom spaces.
Update as of October 30th:
As we actively manage and contact trace community cases, we regularly receive questions of what would constitute a level 3 scenario according to our covid-19 risk matrix where the whole school would potentially go into distance learning. One such outcome would be government mandated, the other would be where we have a sufficient number cases on campus, that would severely limit the school’s ability to deliver on-campus learning due to a lack of appropriate staffing. Such quarantine decisions, impacting staffing, will always be taken with the health and wellbeing of all of our community members. If we go that route, similarly to our reopening efforts, it will be subject to a two week reassessment. Based on our most recent CMT meeting, held this Thursday, October 29th, it was decided that we will continue maintaining the grade levels we currently have on campus, and try to sustain this status quo for as long as circumstances provide for it - meaning it could be days or weeks before closing, or we could potentially reach our desired winter break threshold. Another important decision reached was that immediately after winter break, the school will return in distance learning mode for all learners, for an initial two-week period, trying to accommodate travelers and address the higher transmission risk. Whatever we attempt to accomplish it will only be possible with your continued support and full adherence to safety protocols. An important point I’ve been asked to underscore is that students should remain home even when exhibiting the slightest flu-like symptoms.
Update as of October 23rd:
We feel fortunate to have started the school year early, providing two months of continuous learning. The pace at which we conducted our school reopening didn’t allow us to introduce higher grade levels to campus, but these decisions were primarily driven by factors we didn’t have control over. We remain mindful of this fact, and will work hard to ensure that all grade levels are included under the blended learning model, at some point in time during the school year, provided the right conditions.
Approaching the end of October, I wanted to thank you all for contributing to our reopening efforts. As of today, we’ve had minimal covid-19 exposure on campus and more importantly, the testing results from all staff and students, considered close contacts, have thus far returned negative. We have another cohort of students being tested today, and remain hopeful that these results will return negative. If that is the case, it further will reaffirm the importance of all safety protocols and policies we’ve put in place, but more importantly your commitment to abide by them. We’ve received feedback from multiple sources that the school has been highlighted as a model for how institutions should deal with a pandemic. Although challenging, I hope we can sustain this level of commitment until the end of the school year.
Update as of October 16th:
We’ve experienced an increase in covid-19 cases in Skopje and N. Macedonia. This week we also saw our first case of covid-19 brought on campus. After being informed of the positive PCR test, we quickly moved to implement our Scenario (Level) Four: Confirmed Case of Covid-19 on Campus. If you did not directly receive a message from the school in regards to the case and follow-up steps, it is because based on our contact tracing effort we deemed that you or your child had not had a direct contact with the infected person, and therefore there is no need for additional precautionary steps. Our commitment to privacy and confidentiality will remain, as this is a private matter for affected parties. We ask that you assist us in upholding these expectations.This exercise has so far taught us that we’ve done well as a school. Advance planning as well as the safety measures and health protocols in place have served us well. This has reinforced the need we continue on our chartered course. Although we can hope for no new infections, they’re likely to emerge, so our ability to identify them early and follow through on policy will be key in our ability to continue on-campus learning. This is only possible if we have your full cooperation. We can only react once we’ve been timely and appropriately informed. Without your assistance our efforts as a school would have a minimal effect at best. Our most recent CMT meeting was held this Wednesday (October 14th), where we considered our future reopening efforts. In light of recent developments, it was decided that we cannot introduce any new grade levels on campus. We will again reassess this decision in a two-week interval. Please note that this process is not one directional and can potentially be reversed. We’ve also received word from relevant authorities that should the epidemiological situation continue to deteriorate, schools might be mandated to close. We’re closely monitoring all relevant data and will inform you accordingly of any new developments.
Update as of October 9th:
The successful return of our sixth graders was this week’s highlight. It was the first cohort of Secondary students on campus, allowing us to put in action the division’s blended schedule, and address any shortcomings. Implementing a new schedule, a combination of the normal and distance learning scenarios, is a complex undertaking. The schedule will continue being a work in progress. We welcome your input, and will try to give it our due consideration as we try to improve the overall blended learning experience.
We received positive parental feedback (125 respondents on the survey) on the first month of learning in the Elementary division. The survey reported that 98% of children are feeling happy at school, 97% of parents are comfortable with the health and safety measures the school has undertaken, and over 80% of parents are satisfied with the distance learning support their children at home have received. Feedback on our new on-line applications and tools was still reserved, with 40% of parents feeling it’s still too early to report on their roll-out. 80% of parents are happy with the amount of information shared by the school, while the rest feel there is an information overload.
Update as of October 2nd:
Our return to school after traveling policy, part of the Reopening plan has been subject to discussion as it has impacted students whose parents are traveling. We understand that it has complicated matters, and limited students' time on campus. As we’ve stated all along we have adopted a conservative approach, but are continually looking to revise policy in light of latest best-practices and new findings/research related to the pandemic.The Health and Safety Committee will be meeting next week to look at how we can potentially revise our current travel policy to make it more friendly, while ensuring this change doesn’t significantly impact the safety and wellbeing of our community. We’ve adopted this approach to our whole reopening efforts, and will continually look for potential improvements.
Update as of September 25th:
The CMT met this Wednesday, September 23rd, and considered the school’s continued reopening efforts. As in past meetings, we looked at the parent survey feedback for grades 6, 7 and 8 (18% of respondents were not willing to send their children to school, with higher grade levels having a higher percentage of reserved parents); the current local epidemiological situation, and our school's preparedness in welcoming this cohort of students back to campus. The consensus was that we are ready to welcome grade 6 students starting from Monday, October 5th, provided we don’t have a deterioration in the epidemiological situation or potentially a local community transmission. Once we have successfully integrated grade 6 students, we will consider higher grade levels. It’s important to stress that at this pace, it’s going to take some time before we can include high school students under the blended learning model. Our intention is to ultimately make the effort to bring them too on campus. In the meantime, we’re going to continue having a variety of opportunities that would ensure they have an on campus experience.
Update as of September 18th:
We are happy to report at the end of another successful week. We were finally able to welcome our grade 4 and 5 learners, and with that have all of our Elementary students on campus, an important achievement. We’re now setting our focus on the Secondary division. By the end of next week you can expect a decision by the Crisis Management Team in regards to bringing grades 6 through 8 on campus. In the meantime, we will continue our distance learning support for Elementary School students that have remained home, and the whole grade 6-12 cohort. We’ve already began collecting feedback as to how our first three weeks of learning have gone, in the hopes we can learn and adapt. Should you receive a survey request, please make sure you respond, so your feedback is taken into consideration.
On the Elementary School side, our arrival and dismissal procedures have proven very effective. We can report that families have followed through on our screening requirements, and students on campus on safety protocols. This has allowed teachers to direct their primary focus on learning, instead of enforcing protocols.
In the Secondary School the advisory support at the beginning of the day has served as an anchor to a student's day. We just had our first Community meet to underscore this important role for grades 6-8, helping parents understand how they can better utilize this important resource. This last Wednesday’s Community day was all about movement - celebrating a heart/mind connection, in line with our mission statement. On the following link you can see how the day unfolded. Starting from next week, we’re excited to introduce our Math Enrichment classes, to further build on student numeracy skills.
Update as of September 4th:
Our initial plan for inviting PreK 3 – grade 5 students back to campus, was stalled due to new Government regulations and approvals. Yesterday we hosted representatives from the newly formed Commission on the reopening of schools, who toured our facilities and verified our overall preparedness. We received very positive feedback, and were complemented on the work we’ve done to ensure we can reopen safely for our students. Today in the afternoon hours we received our second formal approval. Based on this outcome, we are going to be welcoming our PreK3, PreK4 and K grade students on campus from Wednesday, September 9th, and plan to welcome our grade 4 and 5 students on campus from Monday, September 14th. Once we reach these reopening thresholds, we will begin to consider including higher grade levels. We will make every effort to provide you with a timely notification of these decisions.
Update as of August 28th:
On August 27th, in the evening hours, we were contacted by a high representative of the Ministry of Education in regards to our issued Government approval from August 20th for the reopening of our school for face-to-face instruction for all grade levels (original Macedonian version and translated English version). We were informed that a new decision-making body, a Commission for the review of reopening requests for schools has been formed by the Government with ultimate oversight. The Commission was formed at the Government’s last session on Wednesday, August 26th (the official decision in Macedonian and English). According to the Ministry representative the creation of this new decision-making body had in effect voided the previous Government approval, for any grade levels outside of grades 1-3, and that we as a school are required to submit an additional request for the reopening of all other grade levels, subject to a new review at an upcoming session of this newly formed Commission.
In light of the new circumstances, the CMT held an emergency meeting and decided to proceed with the reopening for grades 1,2,3 only, while seeking a second Government approval for all other grade levels. Although we were provided a verbal promise of a date, we are deciding not to make time predictions as to when this decision will be reached but to duly inform you once we have it in our possession. We hope it would be a matter of days versus weeks. We therefore will only be able to welcome students from grades 1-3 starting from August 31st. We’re also proceeding with student orientations as originally planned for our Secondary students, as this doesn’t constitute an actual commencement of school.
Update as of August 21st:
We are happy to report that the Government has reached a decision in regards to public schools’ reopening, and we’ve also received our formal reopening approval, independently of the public school system. We’ve also processed the parent and staff survey results, are completing our staff PCR testing, and have held our Crisis Management Team (CMT) meeting today, in which we formalized our initial school reopening model. Provided the current epidemiological situation, the Government's decision on school reopening, and our own school preparedness, we will commence the school year under the following models:
Early Education Center and Elementary School (grades Pk3-5) under the blended learning model, with an opportunity for distance learning for families not yet in Skopje or not ready to send their children to school
Secondary School (grades 6-12) under the distance learning model
As a CMT we would have a two-week revision cycle of this decision. In case of no local school transmission of the virus, and an improved local epidemiological situation, we will consider including more grade levels under the blended learning model. Should there be a worsening of the epidemiological situation, or local school transmission, we would consider reducing the number of grade levels allowed on campus under the blended learning or potentially have the whole school switch to distance learning. We would then again assess the situation in a two-week period, deciding how to proceed.
Update as of August 13th:
The decision for reopening is based on our decision matrix, currently at medium risk, taking into account the following three important conditions:
the current epidemiological situation
our community’s view on reopening (families and staff)
and the formal decision and approval for reopening by authorities
Our epidemiological situation has remained relatively stable over the last couple of weeks. Our reopening parent survey returned results where 20% of our families were hesitant about having their children return for on-campus learning, and 10% of families were unable to return in time for the school’s commencement on August 24th. We are also in anticipation of the decisions and approval by the Government in regards to reopening. As of today this has not happened. In conclusion, the Crisis Management Team (CMT) at the meeting on August 13th, decided to delay the school's reopening for a week, with the school year starting from Monday, August 31st.
We remain optimistic about our ability to reopen in the blended learning setting for at least some of our students. However, NOVA's CMT has decided to postpone the final determination on the commencement of the blended learning model. We have determined the further need to base our decision on the input of the full NOVA parent and faculty/staff community, as well as to await for a formal decision by the Government in regards to NOVA’s Reopening plan and the public schools’ reopening. What we can say with certainty at this point is that we plan to bring students to campus to introduce them to the new protocols, beginning on Monday August 31st and continuing to September 2nd. In anticipation of the decision, each division has determined a course of action to introduce the new safety protocols to students under carefully controlled conditions. We plan to lead the students through all of the new safety procedures, while also providing an opportunity for students to re/connect with their school and classmates. These connections will be especially important for our first-time NOVA students.
more