Dear Providence Day families,

 

As you know, updates with the COVID-19 coronavirus continue to change day by day and hour by hour. In recent days, members of the school's leadership have conducted numerous meetings to hear from experts. From the beginning of the outbreak, we have been monitoring the actions our industry leaders recommend and following institutions including the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state and local health agencies, the National Association of Independent Schools, and the Independent School Data Exchange. We have taken many factors into account, led by our overarching priority to protect our students' health and safety. And because levels of risk continue to evolve so rapidly in so many parts of the world, out of an abundance of caution we have made the difficult decision to suspend all school-sponsored out-of-state and international student travel for the month of March. Many of our peer schools have made similar decisions, concluding the potential for risk to students and teachers is too great. 

Individuals who were scheduled for the impacted trips have received direct communications from the school. If you have specific questions about your student or their trip, we recommend you contact your student's division head. For anyone who has questions about their own spring break travel plans, we recommend continuing to monitor the CDC's  travel advisories at this link.  

We also recommend continuing to follow the advice of health experts regarding preventative measures for flu and all forms of coronaviruses, including frequent hand-washing and staying home whenever symptoms are active. Click here to see them. Our nursing staff recommends you contact your healthcare provider if you have flu-like symptoms (including fever, cough, shortness of breath, body aches, and chills).

We want to assure you that we are continuing to monitor the situation and will remain vigilant in our decisions regarding our school community. While we do not want to cause unnecessary alarm by communicating either too much or too little, please know that we are watching and planning, and will continue to communicate should the need arise.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. Glyn Cowlishaw