COVID-19 Updates

Masking indoors on campus is required for all people, regardless of vaccination status. This policy will continue to be re-evaluated throughout the year as COVID conditions in Houston improve and vaccination numbers increase. Masks are not required when outdoors, regardless of vaccination status.

The school will maintain a visitor policy that limits access to campus, while allowing visitors for select school business. With increasing infection levels and hospitalizations in Houston, as well as the impact of variants (such as Delta), we are taking a slow and cautious approach to inviting visitors on campus that do not contribute directly to programming. As such, some visitors will be invited back on campus, including, but not limited to, learning support specialists, after school clubs program leaders, parent guild meeting participants, and volunteers in support of specific grade level programs. As in all things COVID related, we will continue to monitor the environment and modify this policy as is prudent in caretaking the safety of our students, faculty, and staff. Our masking policy applies to all visitors as well.

St. Mark’s is not designed to be a provider of distance learning. All steps to support a virtual platform in the 2020-21 school year were to limit exposure to COVID-19 for people with enhanced health risks, and that is our intent in 2021-22. Although provisions will be made, the platform will not look the same. There should not be an assumption of a fully virtual, synchronous environment. Who qualifies: 

• Students who have themselves, or who have a household member with, a qualified medical condition that makes them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, and are not eligible for vaccination, will be allowed to attend school in a distance platform. Qualification will be on a case by case basis and must be documented by a physician and approved by the school. To apply for your student to participate in distance learning, please email Nurse Sarah Beckmann, and include a doctor’s note. Students will not be allowed to toggle between on-campus and distance learning at the family’s discretion. 

• Students who are assigned to quarantine or isolate by the school will be allowed to participate in the school’s distance learning platform during their required time at home. 

• At this time there are no other qualifications. Students who meet the following criteria should plan to take a “sick day,” with no distance learning option:

  • Students experiencing normal illness symptoms unrelated to COVID.

  • Students electing to stay home with injuries. 

  • Traveling students.

The current plan is for student classroom sections to return to pre-COVID structure, which includes some crossover of students within and between grades. We are viewing student groups on a divisional basis to start the year, in order to allow electives, extended day programming, clubs, athletics, chapel, lunch, and recess to operate more typically.  We will continue to gauge if this environment needs to be more restrictive and if we can open it more fully.

Both the CDC and the AAP recommend a 3 foot distance, when possible, but emphasize the importance of in-person school for all children. When not possible, layering prevention strategies is recommended. Our plan is to open the 2021-22 school year with the following distancing guidelines in place

• Classrooms will return to pre-COVID roster numbers, which have and continue to be intentionally small.

• As students travel in halls, play on playgrounds, and navigate campus, they will continue to mind the space they afford one another, distancing themselves as reasonable within our program. 

• The use of lockers is still under review. They will be set up and intact, ready for use to start the year, and our strategy for employing them will be guided by the COVID status upon the return to school. Any specific student needs for locker use will be communicated by the division head.

At this point, vaccination is not required for our community, however, as this environment continues to evolve, we will re-evaluate based on current conditions. Per recommendations by the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics, we encourage vaccination for all eligible students, families, faculty, and staff. Individuals who are documented as fully vaccinated will not be required to quarantine after exposure to someone with COVID-19 unless they have symptoms. 

We are excited to return to a dining experience closer to the one we enjoyed prior to COVID, which includes dining in Hauser Hall, the Flex Space and the Courtyard, and offers a wider variety of food choices. To accommodate these upgrades, we will be

• Scheduling classes to limit the number of students eating at one time and spreading them out among the three spaces.

• Limiting self-serve dining stations and replacing them with “grab and go” or stations served by lunch service employees.

• Prioritizing our outdoor spaces for eating, weather permitting.

Much of the signage designating spacing and directional hallways and stairs has come down over the summer, however, the extra effort at handwashing and classroom cleanliness has contributed to a much healthier campus this year and will continue to be a point of emphasis. 

We feel it is no longer necessary to ask people to submit a form attesting to their status of symptoms related to COVID-19, however, these symptoms remain reasons to keep children home from school and are addressed on page 47 of our Family Handbook. As was our policy last year, if your child is experiencing any symptom of COVID-19, please keep them home and send an email to covidupdate@stmes.org. Daily temperature checks at the classroom door will no longer be needed. Similar to last year, we have a COVID-19 waiver form that all families are required to sign.  It is available on the Portal with other forms required before the start of school.

We are working toward a return to athletics programming that feels more normal. We are beginning the year with mixing grade levels to create teams that are balanced and competitive. We are beginning the year without spectators in the gym for our volleyball season. We will re-evaluate our policy for volleyball spectators in September. Spectators are welcome to watch their athletes play soccer or run cross country meets, because they are outdoor sports. If you visit other locations to watch a sporting event, please defer to the guidelines and policies of each site. We will ask our students to follow our masking policy, whether they are at home or competing elsewhere.