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UPDATE: Some Reminders Before the Start of School

Dear Northwood School families: 

In less than two weeks, students will begin reporting to campus and beginning a 14-day quarantine to help ensure a safe and healthy start to the school year. Day students arrive on August 21 and boarding students on August 24. The faculty and staff are preparing for your arrival, and the list of things to do this year is longer than ever. 

In these days leading up to your trip to Northwood School, you must be vigilant to avoid exposure to the virus. We ask that you wash your hands often and practice good hygiene. Wear a mask or face covering if you must be out in public and avoid gatherings. Your journey to Lake Placid, whether it lasts a full day or an hour, presents a risk of contracting the virus, so everyone is asked to travel safely: wear a face covering, practice good hygiene and social distancing, and avoid places where people might congregate in large groups. 

There are three requirements that must be met before students may arrive on campus, and we will not allow students to check in unless all three conditions are met. They are: 

1. All required health forms must be submitted 

Having complete health records of our students is critically important this year. Check the status of your health forms by logging into your Magnus Health account. A new required form – a consent for COVID testing – was recently added. 

Please note: For this year only, boarding students who cannot get a physical exam before arrival at school may receive a physical at Northwood School from the school’s medical director. The fee for the exam will be billed to the student’s account. 

2. Completed Emergency Contact Form  

You may check the status of your emergency contact form by logging in your Magnus Health account. 

3. A recent negative COVID-19 test  

All students must be tested with a diagnostic molecular (PCR) test – not a rapid point of care test – no more than 72 hours before returning to Northwood.  Students may upload their test result to the Magnus Health portal prior to arriving on campus or bring the results with them to registration.  

We understand that it may be difficult to get tested in some locations or that there are significant delays in receiving results. We recommend these at-home testing solutions, which deliver faster results than most public test clinics: 

·         Vault Health   

·         Everlywell (not available in NY, NJ, and RI) 

·         Pixel 

Students and families should also expect a standard health screening, including temperature check, upon their arrival to school, and anyone failing the screening will be refused entry to campus. 

Assurance Testing with Quarantine  

Northwood is onboarding students with a program of “assurance testing" combined with quarantine. Assurance testing is frequent testing of asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic individuals to quickly identify and isolate a single case of COVID-19 before there is spread, which can lead to an outbreak and the cessation of in-person programming. Students will also quarantine for 14 days after the initial test to comply with New York State and CDC quarantine requirements for travelers and to ensure that any positive cases found during onboarding do not result in community spread. Our schedule of assurance testing is: 

1.  Arrival: August 21 for day students and August 24 for boarding students 

2.  Day 7: August 28 for day students and August 31 for boarding students 

3.  Day 14: Sept 4 for day students and September 7 for boarding students 

I have an update on our assurance testing partner. We were excited about our partnership with our local hospital, Adirondack Health, to administer testing clinics for our students. However, because of the delays in regional labs, Northwood School has engaged in a new partnership with The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and CIC Health to process our assurance testing. More information about this laboratory and testing program are available here.  

Later this week, you will receive a message from Head of School Mike Maher about the community pledge all students will be required to sign and adhere to, in addition to our regular student handbook, in order to ensure the wellness of our community this year. 

Sincerely, 

 

John Spear 

Assistant Head for School Life