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Dear Students, (copy to families and adult members of the campus community)
Happy New Year! We hope you will take time this weekend to reflect on the historic year we have experienced and look ahead to 2022! We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and taking care and that you have been able to enjoy your time away from campus. We are eager to welcome you back soon. There are two parts to this communication:
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- A general timeline so that you know what to expect in the next two weeks.
- Specific medical information to meet our requirements and to keep each other safe and healthy
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As you read in Dr. Kington’s communication, this return to campus is distinct. To address concerns about increased transmission rates with the new COVID variant, all boarders are expected to return to campus on January 3 to QUARANTINE. If boarding students are symptomatic or test positive on the 3rd, they will return to campus on the 9th. If boarding students tested positive over break, they may return to campus on the 3rd or 9th (see medical section below). If boarders would like to consider being a day student for the remainder of the term, families need to request this change through the Dean of Students Office; please reach out to your student’s cluster dean. We understand that these stretches are challenging, and we will do our best to take good care of each other!
Students must take a test before returning to campus. This can be a PCR or rapid antigen test (available in pharmacies or through some state agencies). Please do not come to campus if you test positive or are symptomatic. If you are fully vaccinated, your symptoms may be mild, but they are still symptoms. If you are unable to come to campus on the 3rd for these reasons, contact the Sykes team, your cluster dean and your point person.
First Entry Point: January 3, Snyder Center, 12 - 8 pm (All Boaders) - Please plan to arrive on campus after 12:00.
- Take a rapid test with a medical team member
- Submit a saliva sample
- Proceed to the dormitory once cleared by medical team
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FIRST WEEK: January 3 - 9- Zoom classes in regular weekly schedule; bring a charged device with a functional camera and microphone; bring headphones! Check Canvas course pages for Zoom links. Students need to be in a good WIFI zone (probably not outdoors) in order to access their classes synchronously. Instructors will understand that some students may not have access to all of their academic materials and that it may be challenging to participate fully from their room at home, dorm room, dorm common room, or isolation space.
- If a student would like to request to be excused from their class, they should contact their cluster dean.
- Between 6 am - 8 pm, boarding students will be able to be outside on campus as much as they would like!
- Sign in will be at 8 pm every evening for boarding students.
- Boarding students will pick up meals from Paresky.
- Masking inside will be imperative. Everyone needs to wear high quality masks such as triple-ply disposable masks or better instead of cloth masks. Masks must fit properly without being loose or drooping and cover the nose and mouth. We will have boxes of masks for you to keep when you arrive, and also around campus.
- Testing—saliva samples due 4th and 6th (submitted at Snyder on the 3rd and in the dorms on the 5th for boarding students). Appointments will be made for rapid antigen on January 4th from 8am-5pm when you arrive and test negative on January 3rd.
- Dorm meetings will be by Zoom.
- Boarding students will not have access to OWHL, Snyder, Borden, classrooms—any indoor spaces other than their own dorm.
- Vaccine clinic on January 5th
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Second Entry Point: January 9, Carter Lobby, Snyder Center, 3 - 6 pm (Day students, students who tested positive for COVID since December 1, 2021, and any students who had symptoms of illness on January 3).- Take a rapid test with a medical team member.
- Submit a saliva sample.
- Boarding students will return to the dormitory once cleared by a Sykes team member. Day students will be welcomed back to campus the morning of the 10th. Boarding students who are delayed for any reason OTHER than testing positive for COVID will need to quarantine.
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Second WEEK: January 10 - 16 ORANGE ZONE- Classes: In-person, masked, indoors
- Masking: Required everywhere inside (including your own dorm) unless actively eating, showering or brushing teeth. Students must hold each other accountable in the OWHL, Paresky, and in all athletic facilities. There remains room for improvement here. Families, we would be grateful for your reinforcement of the importance of masking.
- Testing: Saliva samples due January 10 (boarding students will submit their samples January 9 in dorms)
- Eating: We plan to open Paresky Commons!
- Athletics: Masked for practice and competitions; compete as soon as January 12.
- Travel and visits: We will not grant day excuses or overnights for boarding students. We will not permit dorm (common spaces) OR room visitations while in the orange zone. Boarding students will not be permitted to walk downtown.
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Testing, Health and Wellness This section addresses COVID testing and other health and wellness policies.
Pre-Arrival and Arrival Testing: Day students - January 4 and 6: All day students who would like to return to campus for winter term must submit saliva samples by 9 a.m. on both January 4 and 6. Please return the sample to a collection box in the wellness center no later than 9 a.m.
- January 9: Day students come to campus for an arrival test on January 9 between 3 – 6 p.m. A saliva sample will be obtained if the rapid antigen is negative.
- No further pre-arrival test is needed.
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Boarding Students- December 31 – January 3: A pre-arrival test must be performed with results obtained prior to arrival. Test options include a PCR test within 72 hours of arrival (December 31 - January 3) or a rapid antigen test (including a home over-the-counter test) within 24 hours of return (January 2 - 3). This testing requirement is critical to determine COVID positivity prior to arriving on campus, especially if a student will be returning to campus unaccompanied. Options to explore for testing include your student’s primary care office, state testing programs (in Massachusetts, this site has many options including walk-up testing), mail away testing services, and checking regularly with pharmacies by phone and online ordering. If you have exhausted all options, you may still return, and we will test on arrival.
- January 3: All boarding students who would like to return to campus for winter term must return on January 3. The only exception is for those who test positive or are experiencing symptoms of illness; these students must be in touch with Sykes Wellness and their cluster dean.
- January 3: A rapid antigen test will be performed on arrival to campus between 12 – 8 p.m. in the Snyder Center. Parents/guardians who are transporting their student should wait on campus until their student receives a negative result.
- January 4: Another rapid antigen test will be performed during a free block between 8am-5pm. This will also occur in the Synder Center.
- PCR testing will be performed using saliva collected January 3, January 6, and January 10.
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If you have had a COVID-19 Infection/positive test over break:
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- Email Sykes with the positive test result and date.
- Complete an antigen test (home test is acceptable) taken at least 5 days after the positive test and submit this to Sykes (a picture of the home test is acceptable).
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Students who tested positive at least 5 days before returning to school, have a negative antigen test 5 days or more after the positive test, and have no or improving symptoms, may return to school. They may return on 1/3 and quarantine with the boarding community, or return on 1/9 without a quarantine (they will need to submit a negative antigen test within 24 hours prior to returning).
Collecting health information The Daily Symptom Tracker in Medicat will be used to collect information from you about your pre-arrival COVID-19 test and any symptoms.
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- All boarding students must have a negative COVID-19 test before arriving to campus on January 3.
- All students should monitor for symptoms of illness and answer the daily symptom tracker for the first week (Jan 2 - 9). After that time, students should still self-monitor. If experiencing symptoms of illness, they need to stay home or in their room and call the wellness center.
- To complete the COVID-19 symptom tracker, log in to your Medicat account.
- Once logged in, select the COVID-19 tab, click on the Campus Symptom Tracker and complete the question(s). Hit submit when completed.
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If you are symptom-free and have a negative COVID-19 result, you will be cleared to return to campus! If you have symptoms or a positive COVID-19 test, stay home and call, 978-749-4455 or email the wellness center for further instructions. Prior to January 3, please email Sykes as the wellness center is not staffed for phone calls until January 3 at 8 am.
(Further information follows at the end of these email for those who have not already registered for the Medicat Health Portal. It is critical to do so ASAP.)
COVID-19 Booster and Influenza Vaccine Clinic On Wednesday, January 5 from 2:30 - 5:30 p.m., we will hold our second on-campus student booster clinic. At this time, the CDC has approved COVID-19 vaccine boosters for anyone who is at least 16 years old and received their last COVID-19 vaccine dose at least 6 months ago (for Pfizer and Moderna) or 2 months ago (for J&J). The age group for boosters is likely to be expanded to those 12 years and older next week. If this occurs before our clinic, we will offer the booster to that age group as well.
If you would like to receive the influenza vaccine, email Sykes.
A Vaccine Consent form must be signed by parent(s)/guardian(s) of students who are 17 and under. Students 18 and older can sign for themselves. The consent form can be found and uploaded under the forms tab in the Medicat Health Portal.
To make a COVID-19 booster appointment, sign into your Medicat Health Portal account, select the “Appts” tab/drop down. Further information follows below.
We can do this, Andover! We know this is a lot of information to digest and many steps involved to keep our community safe.
Enjoy the holiday weekend and please celebrate safely and responsibly. We look forward to seeing you very soon! If you have questions or concerns before January 3, please reach out to your cluster dean.
Dr. Patel, Mr. Mundra, Ms. Elliott
To register for Medicat Health Portal:
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Access by clicking the link here or by typing https://andover.medicatconnect.com into your browser.
Hit Register
Scroll down and enter a username of your choosing and your andover.edu email
Enter your first and last name
Hit Submit Check your email for a registration email from Medicat and click on the sent link. You will be prompted to create an unique password that you will use to access the portal in the future. Please create a password of at least six characters and make a note of it in a secure location. The username and the password you create are your keys to the portal website. Bookmark this address in your browser for easy access.
The preferred browser for the Medicat application is Google Chrome. If you experience issues setting up your Medicat Health Portal access, please email the OIT Help Desk at helpdesk@andover.edu, or call them at 978-749-4357. The link to the Medicat Health Portal can also be found in the COVID-19 tab on PANet.
To make a COVID-19 booster appointment, sign into your Medicat Health Portal account, select the “Appts” tab/drop down.
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Please select Medical Clinic and then COVID-19 Booster for Reason. In the next screen select the date of the clinic and the time you would like. It may take a moment to load the appointments.
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If you need to cancel and reschedule, you can hit the cancel appointment button on the Home page and then go back to the Appt area to select a new time.
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Phillips Academy
180 Main St.
Andover, MA 01810
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You received this message because you are a valued member of the Andover community. We are obligated to communicate with you, and require you to be on our email list while your student(s) attends Phillips Academy. For more information contact the Dean of Studies Office. |
© 2021
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