October 29, 2020
This morning’s Daily Camera included an article about several recent outbreaks in Boulder County, including one at Bixby School. Because we were unable to share comments in the article, we wanted to share more information about the situation with the community.
The outbreak was within a single cohort. No students or staff in the cohort beyond the 2 already reported to CDPHE have developed symptoms and all test results have been negative. In addition, the cohort was quarantined for 14 days. The individuals who were positive are recovered and no one became critically ill.
Bixby School is committed to doing all we can to provide a safe environment for our students and staff, and has taken a multi-layered approach to mitigating the risk of disease spread. We are partnering closely with public health officials to respond to the recent outbreak, and are grateful for our ongoing partnership with Boulder County Public Health. According to Boulder County Public Health, “we can’t determine at this time that transmission occurred within the classroom, given the information we gleaned from the cases. We will continue monitoring for this reason.”
Bixby School has been providing in person learning since the opening of school this fall because we know it is best for kids. We have made strategic changes to our program and facilities in preparation for this year, including the use of cohorting, outdoor classrooms for each cohort, limiting cohort size, designated indoor classrooms and bathrooms for each cohort, schedule changes to limit the number of adults that interact with each cohort, daily disinfecting, enhanced health practices such as universal mask wearing, handwashing and physical distancing, and suspension of our extended care and swim programs. We have been assured by Boulder County Public Health that Bixby School is doing “exactly the right things” to mitigate risk of disease exposure and spread.
Unfortunately, none of us is immune from the rising spread of COVID in our community, and we are continually reviewing our practices and new information about COVID as it emerges. Here are some of the additional steps we are currently taking:
- Engage an external health professional with expertise in COVID-19 mitigation to conduct an independent review of our practices and make recommendations for improvement
- Make additional changes to our facilities to avoid the likelihood that cohorts will be walking through the same hallway at the same time
- Face shields during snack and meal times
- Increased monitoring of the quality of handwashing
- Additional education for all staff and students about how to reduce the risk of disease spread
We appreciate the partnership of our families and staff as we navigate the current pandemic. Bixby School is dedicated to transparency and doing all we can to support the health and safety of our school community. If you have further questions, please contact Nina Lopez (NinaL@Bixbyschool.org) or Boulder County Public Health.
Nina Lopez
Bixby School serves preschool through elementary level children and their families in a small community setting that compassionately empowers children with critical thinking skills, self-confidence, independence and a love of learning; develops their individual gifts; and prepares them to make meaningful contributions to the world.