COVID-19: Our Plan for Fall 2020 | Crossroads College Preparatory School

We are all navigating complex times, and Crossroads has developed a plan to be flexible, learning- and teaching-centered, and reflective of our mission. Our plans reflect a priority for safety, limited exposure, and extensive cleaning protocols. Our effort to be an exemplary and engaging learning community committed to justice and equity calls us to plan for the best we can offer to our families. It is times like these where the nuances of our difference and diversity are most evident, and the commitments of our mission require that we do the best to make sure everyone has access.

Past Communications Related to COVID-19

Frequently Asked Questions

The Crossroads Plan

In order to ensure that students remain at appropriate distances while in the building, all of the classrooms and common spaces have been rearranged to keep students at 6’ distances and facing one direction. Where there were round tables with several chairs, there are now classrooms desks. Where there were classrooms arranged in squares or pods, they are now rows of desks. This is obviously a marked contrast to how we use classroom and common spaces generally. However, during this time, we must make the space conducive to the six-foot required distances between students.

Students will move between classes as usual as there is a lower risk for transmission when students and faculty and staff wear masks and aren’t close to one another for very short periods of time. However, we will need to limit where and how students move in the building before school, during free blocks, during lunch, and after school. We will also revise how we do Monday Morning Announcements. We will update students and parents with these procedures when we have them finalized.

In addition to having a task force dedicated to thinking about how we develop and maintain our sense of community and belonging for new and current students and families, we will continue to host student groups like Student Council, the BSU, GSA, and JSU (likely virtually given the size of these groups and because want to include as many students as possible). We were able to maintain most of our end-of-year traditions in April and May (albeit revised and virtually or in very specific in-person ways), and we will continue to support our school traditions as best we can going forward as well. Events such as Double Rainbow won’t be the same, but we still plan on celebrating as we always have.

The St. Louis Sports Medicine COVID-19 Task Force, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health and the City of St. Louis Department of Health all agree that for now, competitive activities like games and scrimmages should be paused. Therefore, Crossroads will not hold pre-season practice. Athletes will be able to practice in very controlled circumstances once school begins. Bob will communicate about this more thoroughly in the coming days.

During PE, students will engage in single-person exercises and activities. Students will face one direction and be at 6' distances at all times. When PE is inside, everyone will wear a mask. Equipment will be wiped down after each use. When students attend PE on virtual days, they will be assigned specific exercises from the Nike Training App (which is free to download). If the student or parent is not able to download the app, please contact Bob. Students will report their virtual PE activities via email that will include confirmation of completion and responses to questions specific to the assignment.

Students who are on-campus and not able to wear a mask during PE (due to asthma, for example) will complete the exercise from the Nike Training App at home.

We can expect some students and teachers will be absent due to illness or due to quarantine because of possible exposure to COVID-19. To accommodate this, Crossroads will develop a complementary online program so that students can continue to learn and teachers can continue to teach. In addition, families, faculty, and staff will need to monitor their health and err on the side of staying home rather than “powering through” the day with minor symptoms (symptoms not due to a known diagnosis like allergies or asthma).

Health & Safety

Before students enter the building, they will be met at the door by a Crossroads staff member who will take their temperature with a no-contact device and ask them a series of screening questions regarding symptoms and possible exposure. If their temperature is under 100 degrees and they answer no to the screening questions they will sanitize their hands and report to their first block of the day.

Parents should report to our attendance line or email when their child does not pass the self-screening. If the child’s symptoms are mild or if the child needs to quarantine for some other reasons, please report that the child is in quarantine and why. If the child is ill and unable to attend on-campus or virtually that day due to illness please report the child as ill.

The COVID handbook will include complete self screening questions and a health flowchart to help families and Crossroads determine when students may return to school from quarantine or after an illness.

General

Classrooms and common spaces set up for physical distancing.
High-touch surfaces sanitized throughout the day (desks and tables after each use).
Sanitizing stations at both entrances.
Hand sanitizer in all classrooms.
Reminders about good hand-washing protocols, etc.
Complete building sanitization twice weekly.
Daily all-school cleaning.

HVAC

Adjusted economizer dampers for increasing outside air.
MERV 13 filters, which are required to filter out viral carriers and bacteria, on units that take replacement filters.
Increasing preventive maintenance schedule to sanitize the filters that don't use replacement filters.

Miscellaneous

Paper towels provided in restrooms with air dryers.
Disposable shields and clear masks available for those that need to see/show mouth
Extra masks for each student, faculty, and staff member should they need it.
Signage and decals throughout the space (hand washing, masks, arrows for outside south kitchen area, etc)

How Decisions Are Being Made

In addition to relying on the guidance of the CDC and the St. Louis Department of Health, Crossroads has formed task forces to problem-solve and to help make decisions about virtual learning, the daily schedule, building and maintaining community, and orienting parents and students to changes in the program and facility. We also have a task force made up of health experts in our community. This Health and Safety task force is particularly useful for understanding the impact of our plans and decisions we are making for next year.

Crossroads designed a hybrid 3-2 schedule that can seamlessly transition from in-person to virtual should circumstances in the St. Louis region change surrounding infection rates in the community and potentially within our own school. We learned a great deal about virtual learning through several surveys of students and parents last spring, and we are designing an improved version of the online component for next year should the need arise.