Dear Faculty and Staff,
As you know, DC Health lifted its indoor mask mandate for schools on Tuesday night. Following this announcement, I spoke with the heads of school at St. Albans and Beauvoir and our medical experts to determine how we would move forward with our masking protocols as a Cathedral Close community.
After thoughtful discussion and collaboration, we have decided to make masks optional for all students, faculty, staff, and visitors, effective Monday, March 14.
While this news may feel overdue to some and sudden to others, I want you to know the factors that went into this decision.
DC Health's announcement aligns with updated CDC guidance that ties mask mandates to
COVID-19 community levels, which are based on hospitalizations, potential for strain on the local health system, and number of cases in the community. The District’s
COVID-19 community level is currently “low,” and case rates at NCS and other Close schools have also been low in recent weeks.
Additionally, we are a highly vaccinated community, and as our medical experts have reminded us, full vaccination significantly reduces the likelihood of hospitalization, serious illness, and infection.
NCS will continue our weekly COVID-19 surveillance testing so we can monitor how our community responds to this protocol change. If we experience a surge in cases at the school level or the District’s community level changes to “high” at some point, we or DC Health may need to institute a mask mandate again.
We will also continue with other existing risk-mitigation practices, including asking anyone with any symptoms to stay home, encouraging good hand-hygiene practices, and focusing on good ventilation by opening windows and running the upgraded air filters.
I want to acknowledge that there are members of our community who will choose to remain masked for health or safety reasons. Others will feel comfortable without masks at all. Still others may choose to wear masks for certain activities or may wait a few weeks to see more testing results. We fully support each family’s and individual’s decisions. In the coming days, we will also spend time with students in each division discussing respect for others’ mask choices.
Beyond masks, as some of you may be aware, the updated DC Health Guidance for Schools also adopted the CDC’s approach to isolation and quarantine. We are in the process of conferring with our medical experts and the other Close schools and will be in touch soon with any updates/changes to our internal guidelines for isolation and quarantine.
As always, thank you for your partnership and your support.
Warm regards,
Elinor Scully
Head of School