COVID-19 Update & Reminders – August 22, 2021

I hope and pray you all are doing well.  I’m writing with the latest COVID-19 updates.  I’ll begin by reiterating what was reported in an earlier email: Saint Mark has taken action to address another COVID-19 case that has been identified on campus.

COMMUNITY CONDITIONS 
The current numbers (which are available on the Hawaii Data Collaborative) have unfortunately continued to increase in the past week.  There are currently 9,007 active cases of COVID-19 in Hawaii (6,078 on O`ahu).

Current Numbers
The 7-day state average of reported daily new cases is 661 (454 on O`ahu) and the 7-day state average of the positivity rate is 7.8% (9.0% on O`ahu).

August 13 Numbers
The 7-day state average of reported daily new cases is 511 (346 on O`ahu) and the 7-day state average of the positivity rate is 7.3% (8.0% on O`ahu).

August 5 Numbers
The 7-day state average of reported daily new cases is 381 (256 on O`ahu) and the 7-day state average of the positivity rate is 5.4% (6.9% on O`ahu).

May 27 Numbers (Last week of 2020-21 School Year)
The 7-day state average of reported daily new cases is 50 (39 on O`ahu) and the 7-day state average of the positivity rate is 1.0% (1.5% on O`ahu).

PARENT PARNERSHIP IS A MUST
As you all should be well-aware, Saint Mark’s COVID-19 Campus Plan entails a layered approach utilizing multiple preventative strategies including: Daily Health Screening; Personal Protective Equipment; Hand Hygiene & Sanitation; Physical Distancing (to the extent possible) & Ventilation; and Cohorting, Contact Tracing & Quarantining.  All of these strategies are important tools in our battle to stay safe; however, I want to take a moment to focus on the two strategies that specifically require parental support to be most effective – staying home when sick & wearing properly fitting masks.

(1) Stay Home When Sick
I cannot overstate how important it is in this current climate for parents to continually monitor their children for signs of illness and to keep their children home if they show any symptoms.  Albeit asymptomatic COVID positive students will continue to make their way onto campus, we have had a number of close calls where vigilant parents have kept their mildly-symptomatic child(ren) home from school because they did not look or feel well and then found out later that they were in fact COVID positive.

In pre-COVID times, the idea of keeping a child home from school simply because they didn’t look or feel 100% would have seemed extreme.  However, this type of hyper-vigilance is exactly what is needed in these pandemic times.  Keeping children home when they are under-the-weather can help keep COVID off our campus and thereby reduce our need to quarantine cohorts.   Mahalo for your efforts!

(2) Masks Must Fit Properly & Be Worn Properly
It’s imperative that masks fit properly and be worn properly if they are to afford the desired protection.  Properly fitting masks should fit snugly – fully covering the mouth and nose. We kindly ask for parent support in sending their child(ren) to school with approved masks that fit properly (bandannas, neck fleeces, and masks with valves are prohibited in school). Meanwhile, the faculty/staff will work hard to consistently enforce the need to correctly wear the masks. Mahalo for your efforts!

IMPORTANCE OF IN-PERSON LEARNING
Saint Mark ardently agrees with the American Academy of Pediatrics who strongly advocates “that all policy considerations for school COVID-19 plans should start with a goal of keeping students safe and physically present in school.”  The AAP asserts that “the importance of in-person learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in 2020.”

I share this information in an effort to reiterate the importance of in-person learning and reassure those families who may be experiencing some increased anxiety as a result of Hawaii’s high COVID counts and rapidly filling hospitals.  Please know that while we are sensitive to the feelings of all of our families, we remain steadfastly confident in the efficacy of our mitigation efforts and believe that the benefits of in-person learning for the overall health and well-being of our keiki continue to outweigh the risks.

MUST REMAIN FLEXIBLE
Despite our strong support of safe, on-campus learning, we do not yet know if we have seen the full impact of Delta (or other future COVID-19 variants) and MUST therefore remain nimble in our ability to adapt to what has proven to be a rapidly evolving landscape. As such, the policies, procedures, and overall strategies will be flexible and revised/adapted in accordance with the latest guidelines from government & health officials and as needed depending on the latest developments regarding vaccination rates, level of viral transmission (in the school and throughout the community), and severity of new viral variants.

MORE REASON to GET VACCINATED (Full FDA Approval Expected this Week)
The New York Times is reporting that FDA aims to give full approval of the Pfizer vaccine as early as Monday. The hope is that “the approval could boost the vaccination campaign by convincing more unvaccinated Americans that Pfizer’s shot is safe and effective.”

With this impending approval and the increasingly deteriorating community conditions, Saint Mark strongly encourages all those eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine to please do so!  More than ever, we understand that getting vaccinated is our best chance of staying safe, getting Hawai`i’s kids and teachers fully back-to-school and resuming more normal/traditional school activities.

For those who are interested in how the United States compares to other countries in its COVID-19 vaccination rates, I invite you to check out the Share of People Vaccinated Against COVID-19 bar graph on the Our World Data website.  It’s an interactive graph that allows you to compare the U.S. to other countries over time by sliding the toggle at the bottom of the graph. It’s very interesting.

QUARANTINING COHORTS *REMINDER*
With the record high levels of COVID in our community, it is important that our families continue to understand that when we do have COVID-19 positive cases on campus and it is determined that that individual was in close contact with a cohort, that cohort will be sent home for 10 days (from the exposure date) of quarantining.

AND FINALLY (A Personal Note)
On a personal note, I’ll be out of the office the latter part of this week as my wife and I bring our oldest son, Noah (Saint Mark class of 2017 & `Iolani class of 2021) to college in California.  Noah began at Saint Mark in 2008 as a kindergartener when I was in my second year as head of school, and in what seems like a blink of an eye he’s off to college.  I share this happy (and a bit sad) news for two reasons:  (1) I want to assure our families that the school will be in good hands while I’m gone.  Mr. Markillie along with the office staff, division heads, teachers and assistants will make certain that operations run as smoothly as ever – no matter what COVID challenges may come their way; and (2) I feel the need to remind all of our parents to hug their babies while they can. Because as I’ve now discovered, before you know it they are off to college!!

Mahalo for your continued patience and commitment as we work to keep our students safely on campus through these challenging times.

Mahalo, Blessings and Stay Safe this week,

David Gaudi
Head of School