An email reporting the first positive COVID-19 test in the community was sent out to Moorestown Friends School families on October 21, 2020, and began what has been a turbulent fifteen days. Since the announcement of these first two cases, the school has reported seven more positive cases among students, four from the Upper School and one from the Lower School, and transitioned to virtual learning for the Upper School for a full week from October 26 to October 30. 

How Did the Moorestown Friends School Administration Approach the Situation?

The newness of this situation evokes a unique and never-before-seen response from the Moorestown Friends School administration. The administrators have been employing new tactics to keep the school population safe and at ease. Following the first email sent out to the community on October 21, the school made the decision to keep Upper School students online for October 22. 

Breaking: All Upper School learning will be remote tomorrow, October 22, following a positive Covid-19 test. pic.twitter.com/q88iUvKSbU

— MFS WordsWorth (@MFSWordsWorth) October 22, 2020

The Coronavirus Response Team continued with virtual learning on Friday, October 23, for precautionary reasons, as well as to address the emotional well being of the community. Head of School Julia de la Torre wrote in an email sent on October 23: “As this is our first COVID case, we recognize that members of our community – the Upper School in particular  – are processing a range of emotions. As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, we are choosing to remain in All Virtual Learning for Upper School on Friday, October 23 in an effort to tend to the social-emotional well-being of our students, families, faculty, and staff.” 

While keeping the Upper School in the remote learning plan was intended to be discontinued on Monday October 26, the administration made the decision to extend at home learning until October 30 as new positive cases came to light. With the onset of positive cases, the Coronavirus Response Team worked closely with county officials to conduct contact tracing. 

Director of Marketing and Communications Mike Schlotterbeck explained that while, “MFS isn’t doing the contact tracing… MFS does a lot of information and goes back and forth with those county officials to provide them with as much information as possible, including all the necessary contact information for anyone who could be deemed a close contact to someone who tested positive in the community.” 

The working definition, created by the Centers for Disease Control, of a close contact was shared with MFS families in an email sent on October 22. “The CDC released a revised definition of ‘close contact,’ defining it as any individual within six feet of an infected person for a total of 15 minutes within a 24-hour period.” To effectively gather the information to decide whether someone meets this criteria of being a “close contact,” Schlotterbeck explains that, “it’s a lot of interviews and conversations with teachers, coaches, advisors, to try to figure out if a student has been at this school and has tested positive, who may be the close contact.” 

At the root of all of these decisions, as stated in the “Guiding Principles and Assumptions” on the MFS COVID-19 Awareness and Information Page, is, “the collective health and safety of our students, faculty, staff, and families. We will strive to make decisions that can be sustained by all community members over the course of the school year.”

How Do Students Feel the Administration Approached This Situation? 

In a school communication sent out on October 25, the administration announced that, “there is no concern for school-based transmission, and these cases were not the result of contact from on-campus activities.” Following this statement, we asked the student body how they felt about the school’s response to these COVID-19 cases. 

In an Instagram poll sent out by MFS WordsWorth, out of 59 participants. 76% of voters feel safe with the school’s response to the first batch of positive tests. Sophomore Aidan Short ’23 is a fan of the school’s rapid and caution response. “I think they handled it quickly and with a lot of careful thinking,” said Short.

In addition to sending the Upper School remote from October 22 to October 30, three of the MFS Athletics teams had to quarantine. Despite the frustration that may arise with having to quarantine, senior Mikey Paznokas ’21, captain of the boys varsity soccer team, understands the rationale behind this decision. “The school’s decision was for the betterment of the students and keeping them safe. I thought it was the right thing to do,” said Paznokas.

How Do We Move Forward?

As the situation progresses, Schlotterbeck reports that “the CRT is constantly monitoring area schools, specifically, if there were to be cases of school based, large amounts of cases of school based transmission.” 

In regards to the future of sports, Schlotterbeck explains that fall sports will not be greatly impacted by the loss of practices and games. “In years past, seedings have been based on power points,” Schlotterbeck explains. “The NJSIAA has made it clear that this year, there’s a number of factors that will be taken into account: amount of wins and your winning percentage. So, even if you played less games, they are still looking at power points, that’s the third criteria when they conduct seeding. So, we don’t feel like it’s going to impact our seeding for the teams that had to suspend play for a period of time.”  

Whether or not winter sports will occur has not yet been decided. Schlotterbeck communicated to WordsWorth that “[The Coronavirus Response Team] discussed [winter sports], and Mrs. Dayton and some of the athletics administrators have spoken with the CRT, and that’s all still being discussed, about if and how we can safely host a winter sports schedule.”