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A teacher guides kindergartners into classrooms at Woodland School on Oct. 21 in a video posted on the Portola Valley school’s Facebook page. She wears a mask with a clear plastic panel so they can see her facial expressions.
The preschool through eighth grade school is among numerous private schools along the Midpeninsula that are reopening for in-person learning. Like other nearby schools bringing students back to campus, Woodland is phasing in the returning students. First and second graders join kindergartners this week, who returned to campus last week, said Tanya Spishak, the school’s director of communications, in an email. Third and fourth graders will be back next week. Fifth through eighth graders come back after Thanksgiving break.
Phillips Brooks Academy in Menlo Park began in-person instruction on Oct. 19, starting with kindergartners, according to the school’s website. Officials plan to have the students rotate through two weeks on campus and one week in distance learning.
Small cohorts of Menlo School students returned to the Atherton campus starting Monday, Oct. 26.
“While this is not ideal in many ways, nothing about the situation we find ourselves in is,” said Head of School Than Healy in an Oct. 9 email to parents. “When considering the choice between developing a plan that would be most likely to meet county guidelines and not having any students in school until January at the earliest, we chose to do everything possible to have our students back in any way we could.”
Menlo School required all students and staff to show evidence of having a negative PCR COVID test weekly, according to the school’s website. The school will be providing on-site testing through OneMedical starting the week of Nov. 2, with two testing days per week. The school also has three contact tracers, who can track down contacts of its community members if they test positive for COVID.
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Students arrive on the Menlo School campus for the first day of hybrid learning in Atherton on Oct. 26, 2020. Photo by Cyrus Lowe. -
Menlo School students eat lunch outdoors on the Atherton campus on Oct. 26. Photo by Magali Gauthier. -
Menlo School nurse Joan Barada screens students as they enter the Atherton campus on the first day of hybrid learning on Oct. 26. Photo by Cyrus Lowe.
These schools join local public schools in the Las Lomitas, Portola Valley and Menlo Park City school districts which have reopened in recent weeks. Trinity School in Menlo Park reopened at the end of September, according to the school’s website.
Meanwhile, the Woodside Elementary School District has committed to finishing the fall semester virtually.
Other public schools on the Peninsula, such as Sequoia Union High School District schools, have remained closed to in-person learning.
Editor’s Note: The Almanac requested permission to visit the Woodland and Menlo School campuses, but both schools said they are not allowing visitors at this time.
