DURING THIS ONGOING PANDEMIC, GA’S PRIMARY GOALS REMAIN:

1. To keep our community safe;
2. To fulfill our mission;
3. To complete our curriculum;
4. To facilitate joy and happiness;
5. To keep as many students and employees as possible on campus for as long as possible.

Information below was updated 8/16/22 (subject to change depending on the Commonwealth, CDC, and County).

As you can imagine, we have continued to follow the evolution of the pandemic both locally and nationally. As GA has done since March 2020, we are working closely with the Montgomery County Office of Public Health and CHOP, in addition to studying the CDC’s recommendations for schools.

Covid-19 rates remain high around the country, but guidelines now emphasize ongoing pandemic management in a very different way from the past three school years. Here is what you need to know from GA’s perspective heading into the fall:

1. We echo national guidance that vaccination and boosters are the best way to mitigate Covid-19’s impact and duration and strongly encourage all students and employees to pursue vaccination and booster shots when available.
2. GA remains a mask-welcome community and generally allows individuals to make their own decisions regarding masking.
3. If at any point there is a cluster/outbreak in a specific class or grade, we may require surgical/N/KN95 masks to be worn for a designated period of time to stop the spread as we did successfully this past spring. In such cases, we will consult with the Office of Public Health.
4. GA will continue to post and update our Covid-19 dashboard on Veracross so that individuals have the information they need to decide about masking. We will only report cases where there was possible exposure on campus.
5. Community members with multiple Covid/cold symptoms are required to stay home. Individuals should remain home if they don’t feel well or have more than just very mild cold symptoms. When in doubt, test. As always, community members need to remain home until fever-free for at least 24 hours, and until symptoms are improving.
6. Community members who test positive for Covid are required to stay home for a minimum of 5 days after symptom onset. After 5 days, individuals may return to campus but are required to wear a
   surgical/N/KN95 mask through day 10 after symptom onset to avoid possible contagion.
7. GA will offer the same virtual options to students absent only due to Covid as we did last year: LS virtual teacher check-ins and MS/US Zoom classroom viewing. You will hear from our division heads directly regarding protocols for accessing these virtual options.
8. GA will no longer contact trace.
9. GA will not require close contacts to quarantine as long as they remain asymptomatic; that said, if an immediate family member tests positive, we strongly recommend that other family members test regularly and maintain feasible distance at home and mask at GA for at least 5 days.
10. GA will maintain a supply of antigen tests for community members in case of symptoms that develop during the school day. Please be sure to do the same at home!
11. GA will run classes, assemblies, dining, trips, transportation, and other activities as we did prior to the onset of the pandemic, without restrictions or requirements regarding numbers of people, physical distancing, mandatory testing to participate in activities or events, etc. In all settings, we will support a mask-welcome environment.

If at any point Montgomery County or the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania requires schools to pursue different protocols, you will be informed immediately. At this time, we do not expect intervention from the County or Commonwealth.

Protect yourself, protect each other, protect our community.