A Note from the WSP Pandemic Team

The Pandemic Team, and the work it does, has evolved over the last two years. You can even see that in the name change from Return to School Committee to the Pandemic Team. Each moment we’ve worked together has felt like summiting Mount Everest. We moved from learning how to open our doors in the midst of a pandemic, to navigating our first positive case on campus, to learning how to quarantine a single class while keeping other programs open, to determining what conditions allow us to move to a mask optional policy. Meeting weekly, the team looks at the following metrics:

• Classroom CO2 monitoring graphs

• Covid-19 metrics for Allegheny County including cases per 100,000, infection rate, hospitalizations, CDC transmission levels, CDC Community Levels, and CovidActNow risk levels

• Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) PolicyLab’s questions designed for schools to assess the effectiveness of their Health and Safety Plan

• Case count within WSP community, both employees and students

Following review of the above, the Pandemic Team has a standing agenda item to review feedback from parents, teachers, and administration through a lens of “what is needed”. Each week, the team seeks to meet our community as a whole and offer support where needed. The commitment to walking this path together remains strong, and we are grateful to be journeying alongside one another. We are also deeply appreciative of those who have offered guidance and expertise within and outside of our community—those who have served on the committee in the past, and those who have served in advisory roles. The Pandemic Team will continue to learn and evolve as we move forward, just as it has thus far throughout this journey.

During the summer months, the Pandemic Team will continue to meet as we evolve and shift to meet the needs of the coming school year. We will share more information and updates related to our Health & Safety Plan and any other related Pandemic Team updates closer to the start of the new school year.;

Wishing you and your family a summer filled with joy and rejuvenation, The WSP Pandemic Team