Last week was a wonderful way to test our own routines and our school routines. We started and ended the week with healthy students and teachers! Thank you for being so considerate with the screening and your summer travel quarantines. Our school has individuals with vulnerable health issues, and some at our school have household members who are vulnerable to serious complications, or worse, if infected with COVID-19. While we hope this pandemic ends sooner, please have your family’s new routines for screening and proper mask-wearing be sustainable through the school year – June 2021.
As of yesterday, Grafton County (approximately 90,000 people) has four active cases of COVID-19 with 1-4 active cases located in Lyme, 1-4 active cases being in Hanover, and zero active cases in Lebanon. As Dartmouth College begins to bring part of their undergraduate students to campus, we may see the active case numbers in Hanover go up slightly in a couple of weeks as students are tested, retested, and randomly tested. Dartmouth has a robust and frequent testing plan and is mandating NH DHHS 14-day travel quarantine. With all the testing and public health education, we are hoping for decent containment of the disease within the Dartmouth campus. It is possible! We will continue our twice weekly meetings with NH DHHS, monitoring active cases in our county, and will check in with the Dartmouth dashboard, which will share campus COVID data like: tests administered, positive cases, and quarantine and isolation numbers at the college. If the containment of this disease is inadequate and spreading in a way that may affect our school community, please have your family situation be prepared for a temporary hybrid or temporary distance learning.
This first full-week may test the stamina of many children who have not had this long of a school week since March. Stay well, ensure your children get good meals and good sleep. We will be supportive and considerate of this at school, and please offer your child grace and kindness at home.
