At our final staff meeting of last year in mid-June, we felt quite optimistic about this coming fall in regards to Covid-19. The incidence of Covid-19 in western Massachusetts was very low, and across the country, cases seemed to be in decline. All of our staff and Board were vaccinated, and many of our teen members were becoming vaccinated. We felt the need to create a policy for the fall, though the situation did not feel urgent. We created a thee-tiered (green-yellow-red) policy and declared ourselves to be in “green,” meaning masks would be optional for vaccinated people and required for unvaccinated people at North Star. Staff members went about our separate ways for the summer.
Then came the Delta variant, and the rise of cases in other areas of the United States (and the world.) In New England, our reported cases increased much less than in other regions, but we saw the news about just how contagious this Delta variant was proving itself to be. We read reports about more children getting Covid-19 symptoms and needing hospitalization. We learned about the Delta variant spreading among vaccinated, asymptomatic people. Every week in August, the news became more alarming. I spent much of a 10-day vacation in mid-August fretting about the need to update our policy while being out of touch with my colleagues.
When I returned, I called each staff member to have a private phone call to hear their thoughts and concerns. I chose to start with staff members over Board members because it is the staff who are in the building with teens and facing any risk we choose to absorb. We generally make important decisions by consensus, not voting, and after twelve conversations I could see we had no simple, clear path forward. All of the staff felt strongly about the need for masking at North Star, and perhaps requirements for social distancing and limits on the number of people in small rooms. We discussed ventilation and airflow and the use of outdoor and online options.
The staff was quite divided about whether to require all teens to be vaccinated. We had already agreed that all adult staff and volunteers must be vaccinated, but we knew we had some summer registrations indicating that a handful of teens are unvaccinated. The policy we had publicized in June did not mention either a vaccine requirement for the fall nor any limits on the number of unvaccinated teens we might be willing to host.
Aside from changing a policy at the last minute, the staff had other questions:
• If vaccinated people are transmitting Covid-19 to each other, we need to worry about everyone, not just unvaccinated people.
• What about staff and teens who are vaccinated but living with children who are under age 12 or adults who can’t be vaccinated for health reasons?
• Would any vaccine requirement have exceptions for health issues or religion?
• Will we be testing the members of our community on a regular basis?
• What will be our response when a person who has been present in the building reports testing positive for Covid-19?
• What policies are actually enforceable given our staff time and resources?
In our lengthy meetings and conversations, we kept our focus on how to provide what we believe is a safe and responsible environment. We aimed to ignore what would result in getting North Star the most members, though the awareness that there was no solution that would make everyone happy was a constant stress. I am grateful to report that this current policy does reflect consensus from our full group of twelve staff members and the President of our Board of Directors.
Here’s a link to the new policy we created in August. For those of you not so interested in reading the details, here are the main points:
We have a four-tier policy (green-yellow-orange-red)
• We have declared ourselves to currently be in the “yellow” tier.
• In this yellow tier, everyone must wear facemasks on the premises. We welcome up to 8% of unvaccinated teens who must be tested weekly. This limit allows for the inclusion of every single summer registrant for North Star who joined under the former policy. It will mean that moving forward, nearly all new members must be vaccinated, unless and until we reduce our tier to “green.”
• We are highly encouraging at least monthly testing for all staff and teen members, with the hope that if 25 % of our members randomly test each week we will quickly learn about any outbreak in our community. (Free, unlimited, walk-in testing is easily available where we live.)
We created a fourth tier, “orange”, squeezed in between “yellow” and “red.” That would be for when things get worse, but not so bad that we have to go back to last year’s scenario of everything outdoors or online. I wonder just how long that “orange” tier would last and if any of our families would still be sending their children inside our building? Will I still be willing to show up for in-person work in those conditions?
Our staff, Board of Directors, and 90%+ of our current families view widespread vaccination and the reduction of Covid-19 cases in our community as the ultimate solution. We seemed to be approaching that happy outcome back in June, and we wish that we might move in that direction again soon. Unfortunately, we are not that hopeful for the Fall.
In a unique moment that may reveal my distress, I request that readers do not comment on this post. I have seen far too many public conversations about Covid-19 policy turn ugly, and I am not interested in hosting or generating such an exchange. I am sharing this information because many people are curious to know about our policy and process. I hope this description will be helpful to others.
Coming next: Part Three – Opening Week, 2021!