Nueva, like all other schools, is adjusting how it operates within our shifting environment so that we maximize educational opportunities during the 2021–22 school year.
We are using a new testing partner that uses a shallow nasal swab for its PCR test, and all members of our community, regardless of vaccination status, will be tested on campus on a weekly basis.
Please note: Testing frequency of vaccinated community members may increase and/or decrease based on county and/or school positive case rates.
Week Ending June 5, 2022
Cumulative Total Since Start of 2021–22 School Year
Testsa
1200
47,803
Casesb
20
500
% Positive
1.58%
1.04%
ªOnsite and offsite tests bIncludes 14 current and 2343 cumulative positive cases from offsite tests.
Nearly 100 percent of eligible Nueva faculty, staff, and students are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Nueva supports FDA, CDC, and AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) guidance and strongly recommends vaccinations for all eligible students as soon as practical. This recommendation, except where medical or religious exemptions are required, is consistent with Governor Newsom’s indication that vaccinations will be required for return to school for all faculty, staff, and students by the 2022–23 academic year.
Please use the appropriate link to update your/your children's vaccination status. Rest assured that this information is treated with the utmost confidentiality in alignment with pertinent data privacy regulations.
INDOORS
All community members, regardless of vaccination status, are required to wear masks when indoors, except when eating or drinking.
OUTDOORS
With the number of cases in our school and our county continuing to stay low, our campuses are not mask-optional in outdoor settings. A few important notes:
Masks are required indoors, including restrooms and the gym
Everyone should be aware of distancing outdoors when masks are off
Masks must be put on before entering any indoor space, including restrooms and the gym
Masks may be removed only after exiting an indoor space
It is critically important that we continue to self-screen ourselves before coming to campus each day. The school has simplified its daily health questionnaire so that students and families only have to respond to three short questions every day before arriving on campus. These responses will be reviewed, but not in the same way done last school year. Upon arrival, students will have the opportunity to proceed directly to their classes without having to first visibly show their questionnaire responses.
While vaccination rates for eligible community members are high and case rates are low at Nueva, in San Mateo County, and around the Bay Area, local public health officials continue to guide us to comply with national guidance around travel and gathering.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently uses the following guidance for domestic travel and international travel. You will see that the CDC very much differentiates between vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. (The California Department of Public Health also recommends delaying travel if people are not yet vaccinated.)
We believe it is important to align our own procedures around travel with the guidance given by the CDC.
The school will continue to provide well-ventilated and properly filtered learning spaces, as well as multiple hygiene stations on each campus for frequent hand-sanitizing.
Some physical distancing will be implemented when possible but this will not solely define how many students can be in one learning space at any one time, nor will there be any restrictive number of students assigned per cohort as we did last year. This will allow us to return to ‘pre-pandemic’ student groupings, although it is important to note that we will still consider lower school grade levels as base groups that can be programmed separately from each other.
At Nueva, we monitor the Air Quality Index (AQI) level on both campuses throughout the day. At our Hillsborough campus, we now have a fully functional weather station, which—in addition to measuring weather-related metrics including temperature and humidity—has an air quality sensor, which accurately measures air quality and particulate matter counts. The data streams in real time and can be accessed via Weatherlink by searching Nueva HB-WL. We also monitor the Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Now website, via their Redwood City measurement sensor, as well as IQAir and Purple Air (which have local sensors in Hillsborough and San Mateo). We also monitor AQI on campus at least twice a day using a handheld Temtop LKC-1000S+ air quality monitor.
While our policy for how we respond to changing AQI levels remains the same across both campuses, we will respond to the situational needs of each campus separately, according to the conditions present for each. We also monitor the AQI throughout the Bay Area to be cognizant of conditions our community members* may be experiencing off campus. Our decisions about on-campus operations and accommodations for community members may be influenced by these circumstances as well.
Determinations of campus status and appropriate activities on campus will generally be based on AQI attained, sustained, and/or expected for at least 24 hours. Students should plan to be on campus every day unless otherwise notified. Based on the protocol below, it is very unlikely that the school’s campuses will completely close. As much as possible, we will shelter in place on campus and stay indoors with our highly effective air purifiers.
*Community members include Nueva students, parents, faculty, and staff
The following objectives continue to frame the school’s campus visitor policy:
1) To sustain a learning environment that is safe and healthy for all community members
2) To maximize onsite opportunities that build community and facilitate connections
Please note:
All campus visitors are expected to submit documentation showing they are fully vaccinated.
Any visitors being asked to work directly with students in a teaching capacity during regular school hours need to furnish a negative PCR test result from within the past 72 hours in addition to being fully vaccinated.
Transportation: We are offering families a full level of bus service, which requires pre-registration.
Food service: Lunch is provided to all middle and upper school students, and lower school families can choose to purchase lunch. Epicurean, our catering partner, will continue to provide individually packaged meals, and there will now be more choice and variety. Click here for more information about our lunch program.
Aftercare and homework club: These important after-school services are available to families.
With such encouraging results in the past few weeks, along with the fact that the Bay Area appears to be doing quite well in combating the COVID-19 virus, we are now able to open up our campus a bit more to create opportunities for meaningful community connections. Moving forward, Nueva will adopt this updated campus visitor policy so that small groups of community members and other visitors can safely connect on campus in certain situations. Of course, visitors will be expected to abide by all risk mitigation practices while on campus.
