COVID-19 Protocols

Outlined below are protocols Loomis Chaffee has put in place for the 2021–22 school year to minimize the risk of COVID-19 infections in our community. These protocols apply to all students, faculty, staff, parents, and visitors to Loomis unless otherwise noted. While we hope to provide students with a living and learning experience more reflective of a pre-pandemic year, we are monitoring the continued spread of COVID-19 and the related recommendations from federal and state agencies.

Thank you for your attention to and compliance with these protocols. We hope we will be able to ease some of these restrictions as the pandemic wanes.

Interscholastic Athletics

The following document outlines Loomis Chaffee’s interscholastic athletics COVID-19 protocols for the fall 2021 season.

Athletics COVID-19 Protocols

Testing

For the foreseeable future, we will be testing the entire community weekly through Mirimus saliva pooled testing. Those tests will be collected on Thursdays. (Students who are not fully vaccinated will be tested twice a week.)

For those of you who were not here last year, this process involves obtaining your labeled testing supplies, including a collection tube, and spitting into that tube until it is nearly full, sealing it, and submitting it so that the samples can be returned to the lab for analysis.

Watch this video for important instructions including restrictions on eating, brushing teeth, and other activities before providing a sample:

Where do I get my testing supplies and drop off my saliva sample?

Boarders and dorm boarding faculty: Your testing supplies will be packaged for pick up by the dorm head (or designee) in the Health Center. They will be ready after 4 p.m. on Wednesdays. Please send someone over to the Health Center to get them. The tests should be administered and collected in the dorm and returned to the Health Center by the duty person (or designee) on Wednesday nights.

Day faculty/staff/students: Drop off your saliva sample on Thursdays in the Burton Room (in the Athletic Center) between 8 a.m. and noon. You pick up the next week's testing supplies when you drop off your test.

Will I get my test results?

Who do I contact if I have questions?

Exposure Guidelines

The Health Center has developed a set of COVID exposure guidelines for community members. Exposure is defined as contact with a COVID-19-infected person within six feet for 15 minutes or more, accrued over 24 hours (1 day), regardless of facial coverings, except when masked in the classroom, where the distance is three feet according to the Connecticut Department of Education.

Please inform the Health Center (students) or Human Resources (employees) if you have been exposed to COVID-19. Fully vaccinated students, faculty, and staff who have been exposed to COVID-19 but are not experiencing any symptoms do not need to quarantine but will need to take a PCR test and follow specific masking guidelines. The requirements for unvaccinated individuals exposed to COVID-19 and for vaccinated individuals exposed and experiencing symptoms do include quarantine. Please familiarize yourself with the COVID exposure guidelines linked here.

COVID Exposure GuidelineS

Other Guidelines and Protocols

Masking

In accordance with the state of Connecticut mandate requiring masking in school settings, all school community members and visitors must wear a face mask indoors through at least September 30. (Please refer to the Dormitories section below for dorm-specific guidelines.) Community members will not need to be masked outdoors, although they are welcome to do so. State of Connecticut guidelines do allow teachers standing at the front of the classroom and appropriately distanced from students to teach without a mask.

Dormitories

For the beginning of the school year, fully vaccinated boarding students may circulate unmasked in their dormitory but must wear a mask when in their common room. Unvaccinated boarding students must wear a mask at all times in their dormitory except when they are alone in their own rooms or in the bathroom. Boarding students may visit other dormitories once we get through the first couple of rounds of testing, assuming all is well. We will keep you posted on that. We will inform day students when they are allowed to visit dormitories.

Classrooms

Building Access

At this time, only fully vaccinated community members and visitors may enter campus buildings. This rule also applies to unvaccinated members of faculty and staff families. This rule does not apply to students with a medical exemption and Admission visitors taking an official tour of campus. Please note that access to dormitories is still restricted to boarding students, faculty, and staff only.

Dining

We have left the plexiglass table partitions on a few dining room tables for use by people who prefer that type of seating. Flik Dining Services staff will serve hot meals and provide prepackaged salads and desserts. Containers will be made available to community members who would like to eat outside the dining hall.

Masks must be worn at all times in the servery and dining hall except when you are seated at a dining hall table and eating.

Athletics and After School Activities

Family Visits to Campus

A student’s family members may visit campus during the fall term, although we ask that they not enter the dormitories until further notice and wear a mask when in other campus buildings. If a student’s visiting family member is not vaccinated, we ask that they do not enter any campus buildings and we recommend that they wear a mask outside and socially distance themselves as a courtesy to the school community. If a prospective visitor is not feeling well or recently has been exposed to someone with COVID-19, they should delay their visit to campus. COVID-19 protocols for Family Weekend on October 15-16 will be published on the Family Weekend webpage.

Trips Off Campus

Boarding students will be allowed to leave campus for visits home. This could change, based on the spread/ transmission rates of the virus. Any other requests for off-campus visits will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Students may walk into town. Please note that the town of Windsor currently requires everyone to mask when indoors. This mandate is for all persons over the age of 2 who enter indoor spaces that are frequented by the public. Those who are seated and eating or drinking at restaurants are exempt as are people who have valid written medical exemptions.

Faculty and staff planning to travel outside New England should speak with their supervisor and Mary Liscinsky to discuss return to campus protocols.

Visitor Information

In accordance with current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations, state of Connecticut health guidelines, and school policy, we require all visitors to wear masks and socially distance when inside school buildings, regardless of their vaccination status. If a visitor is not fully vaccinated (meaning two weeks after the final dose of a vaccine), they may not enter any campus buildings and we recommend that they wear a mask outside and socially distance themselves as a courtesy to the school community. The only exception to this rule is for visitor's taking an official Admission tour; prospective students and their family members who are not fully vaccinated may enter school buildings when on the Admission tour as long as they are properly masked and socially distance themselves from other visitors. Family and friends of current students currently cannot enter dormitories regardless of their vaccination status.

If you are planning a visit and are not feeling well or recently have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, please delay your visit to campus.

As before, town residents are welcome to use the Loop Road around the perimeter of campus for walking. Any visitors with questions can stop at the Visitor Center, located on Batchelder Road just south of the Island Road intersection, near the baseball field or call Campus Safety at 860.202.5978.

Faculty and Staff: Please refer to Community eNews, the Faculty/Staff portal, and emails for employee-specific information concerning COVID-19 protocols for employees.

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Interscholastic Athletics

Testing

Where do I get my testing supplies and drop off my saliva sample?

Will I get my test results?

Who do I contact if I have questions?

Exposure Guidelines

Other Guidelines and Protocols

Masking

Dormitories

Classrooms

Building Access

Dining

Athletics and After School Activities

Family Visits to Campus

Trips Off Campus

Visitor Information

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