Dear WMS Community,

It is October 1st, we have gotten through three weeks of school and we have only had to close one class and the after-school program. Pool testing is working; we just heard that in our most recent pool test, everyone tested negative. The whole school community—children, teachers, staff and parents—is working with great intensity to maintain what we have accomplished because it is extraordinarily important that we do our best to bring normality back to all aspects of our lives, but particularly creating an easy and natural school experience for our children.

Dealing with the pandemic has been a very difficult experience for all of us, but probably more so for our children. While we have spent 18 months under the threat of Covid, for us adults this represents a very small percentage of our lives, but for our children, the shadow of the pandemic has been with them for as much as three quarters of their young lives.

New Yorkers are, for the most part, behaving rationally and with a sense of social responsibility. Vaccination rates are high, mask wearing, particularly indoors and on public transportation, is widespread and we seem ready to accept government mandates designed to end the pandemic and protect our health. At the same time, New York City is, by far, the densest large city in the United States and we all remember, when Covid first hit and we had little means to ward it off (washing our avocados didn’t seem to do the trick), how it ravaged the city. So population vigilance faces population density and we must remain attentive to the continuing threat of the virus.

This is not an easy task, as rules and practices are continually being modified as we learn more about the virus and how to combat it. We know we must be flexible and willing to change protocols as the health professionals present new parameters. To that end, please click here for what we believe are our clearest interpretation of CDC guidelines for health and safety as we resume NYC life in the fall.

With appreciation,

Ronnie