To further protect the student body and staff, new protocols were introduced and are still being observed on campus:
Addressing Positive Cases
In an effort to maintain ongoing transparency with families, an online COVID dashboard was created on the MyCCA platform that CCA families have access to. Here, they can see the amount of active COVID-19 cases on campus and what actions have been taken.
Parents are able to check this dashboard as regularly as they’d like so they can make informed decisions for their family. Cases are removed from this dashboard once the affected individual completes his or her quarantine period.
Thankfully, there has been a minimal amount of in-school transmission on this campus
In the event a student or staff member tests positive, the school’s contact tracer works to identify which other students and staff have been in close contact with that individual (within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more). Anyone who was determined to be in close contact is required to quarantine at home for 10 days after their last contact with the individual, or quarantine for 7 days if they provide a negative test result no less than 48 hours prior to the end of quarantine.
The individual who tests positive is required to quarantine for 10 days and must be symptom-free before returning back to school. Students and staff members who are quarantined and feel well enough to work are able to log into classes from home via Google Meet.
“We are seeing a majority of student cases develop outside of school. Thankfully, there has been a minimal amount of in-school transmission,” said Adrienne Huisman, CCA’s full-time contact tracer. “Our contact tracing efforts have revealed that approximately 6% of our student body has tested positive since the 2020-21 school year began, and only four cases are believed to be a result of in-class transmission. There’s also been no student-to-teacher transmission that we know of.”
This data aligns with research shared by CDC experts in a recent opinion piece published in the
Journal of the American Medical Association — a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the American Medical Association. The
article states that “there has been little evidence that schools have contributed meaningfully to increased community transmission” (Honein, Barrios, Brooks, 2021).
superspreader situations are unlikely to happen in schools
Researchers from Duke University arrived at the same conclusion as well. According to Sallie Permar, MD, PhD, a professor of pediatrics and immunology at Duke, superspreader situations are unlikely to happen in schools. “The fear that you’d have one infected kid come to school, and then you’d have many other kids and teachers and relatives [at home] get infected — that hasn’t happened (
Boyle, 2020).”
Creating Experiences and Memories
“Children absolutely need to return to in-school learning for their healthy development and well-being, and so safety in schools and in the community must be a priority.” –American Academic of Pediatrics President, Lee Savio Beers, M.D., FAAP
While physical health is a priority during this season, meeting students’ mental, emotional, and spiritual needs is equally important. Despite school and certain activities looking different this year, God has blessed CCA with the opportunity to provide meaningful and healthy experiences for its students who have endured so much this past year due to COVID.
“At school, kids can be kids,” said Charisma Dougherty, CCA’s Middle School Counselor. “As a staff member and parent, there’s nothing like hearing laughter and chatter in the halls between classes, the bustle of lively discussions taking place in the classroom, and shrieks of joy from our youngest Eagles running around on the playground. These are the sounds of childhood and innocence.”
Planning for 2021-22
As vaccines continue to be administered in South Florida and the region gets closer to achieving herd immunity, CCA’s ultimate goal is to ease protocols that are currently in place. At this point, it’s too soon to tell whether that will be possible for the 2021-22 school year that begins in six months. However, the school’s leadership team and administrators will continue to ask the Lord for wisdom, analyze data, and seek input from families and staff as they work to determine the best path forward.
“If this school year has taught us anything, it’s that God can do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine,” said Steve Mayo, CCA’s Director of Discipleship. “So whatever 2021-22 brings, we can be confident that God will direct our steps, be with us, and move in the lives of our students.”
If you are a prospective parent interested in seeing the safeguards that were mentioned in this article for yourself, or if you have any questions about Calvary Christian Academy’s in-person and mobile learning options,
register for a small group campus tour for prospective families at CCAEagles.org/Tours. Face coverings and temperature checks will be required.