NORTH SHORE COUNTRY DAY
To Roll Out Saliva-Based COVID-19 Surveillance Testing

After an entire fall of in-person learning and a temporary switch to remote learning after Thanksgiving break, North Shore Country Day students will return to campus for half-day hybrid learning on January 19—but this time, they will have the additional benefit of a mandatory COVID-19 surveillance testing program for students, faculty and staff.

The school has contracted with Safeguard Surveillance, LLC—a local firm formed by a Loyola professor of Microbiology and Immunology to help schools reopen safely—in order to provide weekly surveillance testing via saliva sample. This protocol is now being used by over 30 schools in Chicagoland. Although not a diagnostic test approved by the FDA, it is based on FDA-approved tests and science.

“We believe strongly that this test—used all fall by the La Grange School District 102 and recently adopted by New Trier and several other schools—will combine with our already proven campus mitigation strategies to make our campus even safer when we return,” explained Head of School Tom Flemma in a letter to parents. “Perhaps most importantly, adding this additional, significant layer of protection to our safety arsenal makes us cautiously optimistic that we will be able to provide in-person learning for the bulk of the remaining school year.” 

Over the summer, NSCD faculty and administrators concurrently planned for three teaching pathways for the 2020-21 school year: remote learning, full-day on campus learning and half-day hybrid learning. Ultimately, administrators decided to begin the year with the hybrid model. In addition to the guidelines provided by the Centers for Disease Control, the Illinois State Board of Education and the Illinois Department of Public Health, the school’s work was guided by a group of NSCD community members— all of them experts, most of them current parents and medical professionals—who shaped the school’s protocols, policies and procedures. 

In an effort to prioritize in-person learning, a number of precautions were put into place to allow for a safe return to school, including de-densifying classrooms, constant cleaning of common areas and other shared spaces, requiring masks at all times and asking parents to submit daily wellness screenings. From August to November, in-school cases of COVID-19 were minimal and there was no evidence of in-school transmission of the virus. The decision to switch to remote learning was made out of an abundance of caution based on rising positivity rates in the county leading up to Thanksgiving.

While some travel was inevitable over the holidays, members of the school community who planned to return to in-person learning were expected to return by January 4 so they could quarantine at home for two weeks in accordance with the Cook County travel guidelines before returning to campus on January 19.

“We could not be more proud of the work that our faculty and staff have done for three months to make in-person learning possible and successful,” Flemma said. “We are also incredibly thankful for the efforts of students and families to follow our policies and keep our community safe.”

For more information about North Shore Country Day’s response to COVID-19, including a list of frequently asked questions about the saliva testing program, visit the school’s COVID-19 resource page.