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Covid-19 Information & Resources

Covid-19 Update

Dr. Leonard Kupersmith
Dear Friends:

To address the threats of COVID requires constant vigilance. The core team of senior leadership meets at least once a day to stay current and ensure that we are working in unison. We pool our knowledge, share questions, and resolve decisions. We insist upon careful circulation of these decisions and communication only after we have leadership on board and familiar with the basis for decisions. It’s important to speak with one voice. To do so requires communication up and down the line internally and timely and direct external communication.
These updates fall within the second category.

We rely heavily on advisories from CDC. We have also been the beneficiaries of the professional expertise from physicians who are playing significant roles in their respective medical communities to combat the spread of the virus, identify victims, and treat them. The core senior leadership team meets daily to discuss CDC updates, input from CCES community members, SCDHEC directives, and scuttlebut.

The virus is a moving target. New data appear throughout the day; new circumstances emerge with lightspeed. Conceivably, in light of new information, we may depart from yesterday’s protocol and report a new standard for today.

We know that we do not have a monopoly on wisdom. We approach matters with a sober awareness of our limited knowledge but a deep appreciation for our duty to protect those under our care and guidance. We strive for consistency in our procedures. We seek to make decisions that are internally consistent, from one to another, by identifying criteria and principles to guide our judgment. We then apply the principle to the particular issue that we seek to resolve.

We are using this vehicle and webpage developed for COVID-19 updates and to serve as a repository for correspondence and valuable links. Please refer to this webpage regularly for updates.
 

We want to share our thinking and decisions with you. Many of the decisions that we made in the last twenty-four hours are based upon a determined effort to distinguish what’s “essential” from what’s “accidental,” to use Aristotelian logic. “Essential” means the nature of being would not be what it is without it. We wouldn’t be a school without students and teachers providing an academic education. We wouldn’t be an Episcopal school without chapel services. We would not be CCES without the full spectrum of experiences in academics, art, athletics, service, and spiritual life. To divest ourselves of the substance of those constituents would compromise our being.

There are “enrichment” experiences, kind of like “extra credit,” that enhance the core, or essence, but can be removed without sacrificing our core functions and unitary identity.

This standard of determining the “essential” constituents helps us decide what we are willing to give up to save the essence. We applied this standard to mass gatherings (where we also considered “density,” or the proximity of individuals to one another within a confined space), to activities and programs, and to people (i.e., who really has to be in the school to preserve its “essence”).

This exercise in reasoning focuses exclusively on measures that we have chosen to take to upgrade the health and safety of this community. Just as we have sacrificed ease of movement to contend with the rise of terrorism, we have to sacrifice some privileges for the protection of our well being in the face of the threat of COVID-19.

In determining our current stance on mass gathering, we have carved out an exception for essential activities: classroom instruction, athletics (fortunately all sports are outdoors in the spring),the arts, service, and spiritual communion. We are determined, short of closing, to preserve those functions. However, as we did with chapel today, as a prayer walk, we seek to keep the journey alive. 

In an effort to ensure the safety of our students, faculty, and staff while maintaining instructional continuity, we will be limiting our day-to-day operations to the essential, internal components of the CCES program. This adjustment will include reducing the number of group interactions, utilizing outdoor options for instruction and activity when possible, reinforcing social distancing, limiting the number of campus visitors, and maintaining a controlled environment with minimal external interaction. 

Effective immediately, field trips, guest speakers, presenters, and all other outside programs are suspended until further notice. All visitors including parents should only be on campus for student drop-off and pick-up. As always, parents can check a student out for  appointments as needed and are welcome on campus for outdoor athletic-related events. Until further notice, all parent-led organizational meetings will be postponed or convened electronically. Faculty and staff will not attend any external conferences or workshops until further notice.All deliveries (with the exception of FLIK) will be instructed to transport packages to a singular location.
 
To minimize exposure to “high-touch” surfaces, effective immediately Lower School patrols will no longer be on duty. In the same vein, FLIK has decided to suspend all self-serve stations until further notice.  These stations include: Salad bar, panini machines, the lower school chop chop station, and any other areas where students and/or faculty handle food in any way.  FLIK will be pre-packaging salads, snacks, and pastries in order to reduce contact areas. In addition, the FLIK team has been trained on what to do to reduce the chances of spreading the virus and will be increasing their efforts to provide a safe and clean dining experience.

The following events are hereby cancelled.  

Please note that this list will be updated daily and can be found on the COVID-19 webpage.

ALL SCHOOL
  • 3/22: Screenagers
  • 3/25: Tuesday Tea
  • 3/26: Open House
  • 4/3: LS & MS Cavalier Closet
  • 4/4: Crafted
  • 4/2: Community Dinners
  • 4/25: Cavalier Social Connection Food Festival
  • All Indoor Chapel Gatherings
  • Admission Shadow Days
  • All Service Learning Trips
  • All overnight trips international and otherwise
LOWER SCHOOL
  • 3/27: There's Something Special About First Grade (1st Grade)
  • 4/3: Greenville Symphony (4th Grade)
  • 4/24: Greenville Zoo (2nd Grade)
  • 4/28: Columbia (3rd Grade)
MIDDLE SCHOOL
  • 3/17: Trout Release (6th Grade)
  • 4/6-7: Model UN 
  • 4/15-17:Barrier Island (6th Grade)
  • 4/16-17: Camp Kanuga (5th Grade)
UPPER SCHOOL 
  • 3/14: Student Council Semi Formal Dance
  • 3/24: Field Trips
  • 4/6-4/7: Model UN
  • 3/19 All-Day Jones Gap field trip for AP/IB Biology, IB Envi Sci, Envi Sci classes
  • 3/21 NACAC College Fair at Furman 
  • 3/24 Sophomore College Tour Day 
  • 4/8 G11 serves Special Olympics at Furman University
  • 4/21 Modern & Classical Language National Honor Society Induction

For questions specific to your Division, please feel free to reach out to your respective Director: David Johnstone, Lower School, Kate Fagan, Middle School, and Wes Clarke, Upper School, Robin Garner, Arts, and Molly Miller, Athletics.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we navigate this situation. 

 
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Christ Church Episcopal School (“CCES”) admits students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at CCES. CCES does not discriminate on the basis of sex, race, color, national or ethnic origin, creed, religion, or sexual orientation in the administration of its educational policies, admission policies, financial aid, scholarship or other programs, or athletic or other school-administered programs and activities.