Safeguarding the health, safety of students & staff

2021/2022 Return to School

Guiding Principals

Talcott Mountain Academy will continue to work with the Farmington Valley Health Department (FVHD) and the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH) as we move into the 2021-22 school year. This is an outline of our plans for the 2021-2022 school year, but it is important to remember that things will change as we receive more guidance from the FVHD and DPH.

MASK WEARING
  • If the current DPH guidance remains unchanged, masks will be mandatory inside all school buildings for students and staff regardless of vaccination status.
  • We will have masks available for any students or staff who do not have one and we will continue to teach proper mask-wearing.
  • We will provide mask breaks and encourage teachers to use the outdoor learning areas, where, if distanced appropriately, students can remove their masks.
PHYSICAL DISTANCING
  • We will continue to maintain recommended physical distancing between individuals in accordance with the public health guidelines.
  • We will no longer use the desk shields.
COHORTING
  • We will consider Suites A-II as one cohort and Suites III-V as a second cohort. We will continue to have designated cohort bathrooms, outdoor learning space, and lunch areas.
HANDWASHING
  • We will continue to teach and promote hand hygiene. Hand sanitizer will be available in every classroom and school offices.
CLEANING
  • Our cleaning protocols were enhanced during the 2020-2021 school year and will continue. Classrooms will be provided with soap and water to clean high-touch surfaces. We will continue to maintain solitary use bathrooms with paper towels instead of hand dryers. Our water fountains will remain closed and water coolers will be available in every building.
HEALTH SCREENING PROTOCOLS, CONTACT TRACING AND QUARANTINE
  • We will continue to ask that families and staff complete the Daily Screening protocol and stay home when sick.
  • We will no longer be doing daily temperature screening of students but will continue to have visitors check-in at the main office for screening and contact tracing purposes.
  • Unless we are notified otherwise, we will continue to follow the guidelines put forth by the Connecticut State Department of Education regarding contact tracing, isolation and quarantine. We will continue to define a close contact as an individual spending a total of 15 minutes (in 24 hours) within 6 feet of a person with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19. We will work closely with the FVHD and DPH to maintain our protocols.
BUSES
  • We are hoping to run our buses at full or close to full capacity while maintaining health and safety protocols and to return to our original bus schedule. We will continue to require masks on the bus unless the guidance from the DPH changes.
VACCINATIONS

We strongly encourage everyone who is eligible for vaccination to get vaccinated. We will continue to provide information about vaccination clinics.