Frequently Asked Questions

On Friday, Nov. 13, Governor Brown ordered a two-week freeze for the entire state of Oregon to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19 that begins Wednesday, Nov. 18. The order extends an additional two weeks in Multnomah County. Additionally, Oregon, California, and Washington all now have travel advisories in effect recommending 14-day quarantines for inter-state and international travel. In Kate Brown’s remarks, she stated, “COVID-19 does not stop at state lines. As hospitals across the West are stretched to capacity, we must take steps to ensure travelers are not bringing this disease home with them. If you do not need to travel, you shouldn’t. This will be hard, especially with Thanksgiving around the corner. But the best way to keep your family safe is to stay close to home.”

Oregon, California, and Washington all now have travel advisories in effect recommending 14-day quarantines for inter-state and international travel. The Oregon Dept. of Education (ODE) offered guidance for private schools in response to the new information. The advice is for schools to add screening protocols for campus visitors around travel. As such, we have added a question about travel on all our required forms and are asking people to quarantine for 14 days if they have just returned from a trip. This does not include people who live in Washington and commute to Oregon for school or work.

The Governor’s Office and Oregon Health Authority released Statewide Freeze Guidance for K-12 School Sports Tuesday, Nov. 17.  Per the Governor’s Executive Order 20-65, the freeze is effective Wednesday, November 18 through Wednesday, December 2 but could be extended. We encourage you to read through the six-page document but here are the key takeaways:

• Prohibition on all K-12 School Sports indoors, including conditioning, training and competition.
• Outdoor training, conditioning, and competition is still allowed for non-contact and minimal/medium contact sports for schools utilizing On-Site, Hybrid, or Comprehensive Distance Learning.
• Outdoor training and conditioning is still allowed for full-contact sports for schools utilizing On-Site, Hybrid, or Comprehensive Distance Learning provided they don’t include full contact of any kind.
• Mask/face coverings must be worn when actively participating in an outdoor sport.
• Closure of indoor and outdoor swimming pools, licensed spa pools and indoor sport courts.
• Limit the maximum capacity for each outdoor K-12 school sporting event to 50 people. Maintain physical distancing of at least six (6) feet per person.
• Individuals, leagues, coaches, and trainers are required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return to Oregon if an individual has traveled out of state for recreational purposes or as part of an athletic traveling team.

OES Athletics will update you as we know more and will be back in touch no later than December 1.

One of the Governor’s primary emphases was that it is critical for Oregonians to restrict their social gatherings to a total of six people and no more than two households. We ask that you review your plans and abide by this guidance; if you are participating in a learning pod, it may mean that you’ll need to curtail that activity during this period of reduced social interaction.

OES’s COVID-19 Response Plan is rooted in our Mission and Identity, but our practices must be operationally different. During this global pandemic, we must all recognize the inherent challenges of ensuring the health and safety of our community, maintaining the quality of our educational experiences, and supporting our students and families. There will be both compromises and some considered risk along the way. We will need to remain flexible and shift as conditions dictate. To that end, our COVID-19 response is based on four core principles:

Health and Safety: At its core, our plan considers the social, emotional, and physical health and well-being of students, families, and employees. We have implemented a host of additional safety measures, all of which will be reviewed regularly and modified as conditions warrant and state and federal guidance dictates.

Optimized Learning: Our program is centered on rigorous and open inquiry, and we believe that learning occurs best in a social context. Therefore, we are committed, if circumstances permit, to safely reopening campus and to providing as many students as possible—at any given time—the opportunity to engage in classroom- and site-based instruction.

Community and Responsibility: We are a school that celebrates community and prioritizes relationships. Regardless of our campus’ operational level, we will design intentional opportunities for students and adults to interact in a variety of ways. We are also committed to remaining environmentally sustainable and socially responsible.

Inclusion and Access: Finally, we understand that the individual circumstances of our students, families, and employees are unique. We will do all that we can to provide each member of our community access to a dynamic program.

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The Oregon Department of Health (OHA) and Oregon Department of Education (ODE) define “in-person instruction” as when either all students are on campus or a sub-set of students is on campus in a “hybrid” model. The revised metrics shared by ODE/OHA on October 28, 2020, are as follows: 

Pre-K: Based on Oregon Early Learning Division (ELD) guidance, we are holding on-campus instruction for our Pre-K students as of September 9. (Note: Unlike grades K–12, which are governed by the Oregon Department of Education and are subject to the Governor’s metrics for reopening, Pre-K operates under the ELD’s Health and Safety Guidelines for Early Childcare and Health and Safety Guidelines for Child Care and Early Education Operating During COVID-19.)

Grades K-5: A school must meet all of the following requirements:

1. The positive test rate in counties from which a school draws >10% of its students and staff must be ≤ 8%. For OES, this is Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties.
2. The number of new cases in the counties from which the school draws >10% of its students and staff  must be ≤ 100  per 100,000 people over a fourteen-day period. For OES, this is Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties.

Grades 6-12: A school must meet all of the following requirements:

1. The counties from which the school draws students >10% must have a steady or downward trajectory of new case counts and a steady or downward local test positivity rate.
2. The school must have completed four or more weeks with K-5 students on campus in which its average outbreak size was three or less, excluding outbreaks of only one case.
3. The number of new cases in the counties from which the school draws >10% of its students and staff  must be ≤ 100  per 100,000 people over a fourteen-day period. For OES, this is Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties.

Here are the most recent results for Oregon counties. Importantly, because OES draws >10% of its students and staff from Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties, all three counties must each meet the minimum metrics in order for us to return to in-person learning.

Yes. Even though OES is a private school, we are required to follow all health and safety mandates issued by the Governor's office.

OES is committed to begin bringing our students back to campus as soon as we meet the metrics laid out by Governor Brown and the Oregon Health Authority. We are optimistic that metrics in our region will improve and we will be able to have additional students on campus, beginning with our youngest students and working to phase in additional grade levels over time. Once we know we can open, we will need 5-7 days to train students, families, and staff appropriately in new operational procedures, and for some facilities reconfiguration. We will keep you apprised of the timeline as the metrics improve. In the meantime, we will continue with Pre-K, Emergency Childcare for Essential Workers, Athletics, and Limited In-Person Instruction.

We are partnering closely with local public health officials and they will provide support and direction for managing COVID-19 related scenarios that might impact our school community. You can view COVID-19 cases in the OES community on our COVID-19 Dashboard here.

If you or your student was possibly exposed to someone on campus who has tested positive for, or who has been designated as a presumptive case of, COVID-19, you will receive an email and follow-up call with instructions for what actions to take. The daily health screenings we are requiring, as well as our tracking of cohort groups, will enable us to conduct contact tracing. To protect individuals’ personal health information, we will not release the identity of the positive or presumptive case. 

We know this is a difficult time for everyone, and we are longing for things to be as normal as possible. Sadly, we are not there yet. As stated in our Community Agreement, it is vitally important that we all consider the potential impact on the health of our community as we make decisions about our activities outside of school. The Centers for Disease Control offer some excellent guidance about playdates (the concepts can be applied to older students too). The Oregon Health Authority also offers guidance about how to celebrate the winter holidays while still keeping yourself and others safe.

Yes. Health authorities assert that it is extremely important that everyone six months of age and older should get immunized against influenza this year (medical exemptions notwithstanding). Influenza and COVID-19 share many of the same symptoms, and it is possible to get both viruses simultaneously. We are urging all of our employees to get the flu vaccine this year and we may require it for students regularly on campus. Please do your part to protect our community by getting a flu shot soon. Many primary care offices have organized drive-by clinics, and most pharmacies are offering the immunizations as well. VaccineFinder can help you locate the nearest source.

As stated in the COVID-19 Acknowledgement of Risks and OES Community Agreement, every community member (students, employees, and parents/guardians) needs to commit to act in a manner that not only protects their own health, but also that of the broader community. Those who do not uphold this commitment will be prohibited from campus for a specified period of time, as determined by the OES administration.

Click here for a video from Associate Head of School Peter Kraft with an explanation of the COVID-19 Risk Acknowledgement & Community Agreement.

If and when we do reopen campus, we ask that families prioritize in-person learning for your child(-ren) if at all possible. We will of course accommodate students with underlying conditions and/or families whose specific circumstances make it unwise for their children to return to the OES campus. But, in the event that we can reopen campus, our academic program will be considerably more robust for those students who participate in classroom-based instruction. This is especially true in the Lower School, where continuous learning (i.e., entirely online learning) creates special challenges for our youngest learners and their teachers.

For the safety of our community, the OES campus remains closed to the public, including buildings, athletic fields, and even for passing through to walk dogs. We are, however, offering athletic practices for Middle and Upper School students, and Limited In-Person Learning opportunities at all grade levels, within the specific parameters laid out by the Oregon Department of Education. Additionally, we have resumed renting facility space to a select number of athletic organizations who meet our requirements for COVID-19 prevention practices.  Lastly, we continue to run our Pre-K and Emergency Child Care for Essential Workers. All of these activities follow OES, ODE, ELD, and CDC safety guidelines as noted elsewhere.

Currently, the OES boarding program is not open.  Based on the Governor’s metrics and guidance from the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), the Residential Life program is closed until at least January 10, 2021. However, we are working to qualify for the ODE exception that allows boarding schools that meet specific requirements to open their residential programs. We will be communicating with families about this possibility soon. In the meantime, we are providing a rich continuous learning experience through both our regular online courses and our Continuous Learning Academy, which we have created specifically for our boarders in other time zones.

In terms of our program, OES’s 151st year will be as normal as an historic health emergency permits and as innovative as possible to focus on the education and support of our students as well as the safety of all who make that education possible.

All classes (except Pre-K) will be conducted online when operating under the Red Campus Operational Level. Under Red Campus Operational Level, we will use flexible, developmentally appropriate schedules for each division that optimize student growth and allow for increasing amounts of independence and self-direction for older students.

Four key tenets inform all that we do:

• A Focus on Relationships and Community: The student-teacher relationship is always critical, but it is even more essential when working in an online environment. Connecting with others and developing the Essential Competencies is central to all that we do.
• Commitment to Inquiry and Deep Learning: At OES, our approach to all learning, and particularly during continuous learning, is to reimagine learning in a way that encourages students to cultivate curiosity and creativity. As such, our focus is on learning, not “coverage.”
• Different Assessments and Feedback: Assessment and feedback to students necessarily looks different in continuous learning. Teachers will therefore employ new summative assessments through culminating projects, peer-to-peer feedback, and teacher feedback.
• A Dedication to Balance: In a continuous learning environment, the distinction between “homework” and “class time” is not rigid. Regardless, we are aware of the need to balance screen-time with physical and emotional well-being.

Continuous learning will look considerably different than in the spring 2020. Specifically, in the Middle and Upper School classes will be longer—60–65 minutes in the Middle School and 100 minutes in the Upper School (broken up over the course of the day)—to enable students to work in a variety of different manners. With longer blocks, students can have both teacher-directed instruction and more self-paced activities. Moreover, teachers will be even more versed in a suite of shared tools (developed by our new Innovation Team), ensuring that there is more commonality within and between courses.

In August, all OES teaching faculty completed a week-long, intensive course run by Global Online Academy (GOA), a world leader in digital pedagogy. We chose GOA because their philosophy of teaching and learning is consonant with OES—specifically, that learning stems from open and rigorous inquiry grounded in intentional connections. We have also contracted with GOA to offer five follow-up seminars with our faculty throughout the fall in order to further hone their skills with Continuous and Campus-Based learning.

Finally, the summer enabled us to be even more intentional about building connections. From Chapel to Advisory to Activities to dedicated teacher check-in times, the entire structure will be much more integrated. Though there will undoubtedly be some bumps in the road, we expect a much smoother ride.

Other key aspects include:

• Thoughtful and intentional systems and structures to support students both academically and social-emotionally.
• Return to Letter Grades in the Upper School, with the exception of Visual, Performing, and Musical Arts, and PE, which will be Pass / No Record.
• A brand-new assessment and feedback system in the Middle School and a new student progress reporting system in the Lower School.
• More consistent, dedicated time for community building in all three divisions.

Lower School

The Lower School schedule during Continuous Learning includes:

• Two sessions of Pre-K held on campus from 8:30–11:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.–2:30 p.m.
• Online learning for K–5 daily, guided by weekly lesson plans on each grade level’s website.
• Synchronous morning Zoom meetings that will be staggered to allow for sibling participation between 8:00–9 a.m., with most meetings taking place between 8:30–9:00 a.m.
• Three classroom learning blocks (45 min each) in which a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning takes place. Synchronous learning includes whole group, small group and 1:1 instruction; to enable small group and 1:1 meetings, some students may be viewing explanatory videos and working on asynchronous assignments (at their own pace).
• One specialist learning block (45 min) four days per week in which students participate in art, PE, music, library, and Spanish.
• Shared 11–12 p.m. block for all LS students for lunch and outdoor play.
• Closing reflections or meetings daily 2:00–2:30 p.m. (except Wednesdays).
• 2:30–3:00 p.m. time for completing assignments, preparing materials for the next day, or independent work on Lexia (reading) or Dreambox (math).
• Chapel as a live-streamed event on Tuesday mornings and LS Gathering as a recorded event on Friday afternoons.

Middle School

The Middle School schedule during continuous learning includes:

• Classes meet Monday–Friday. On most days, students will have five 60–65 minute blocks from 8:15 a.m.–3:05 p.m.
• Morning classes are three Face to Face (synchronous) classes online, where students will work with the whole class, one-on-one with the teacher, or in small groups.
• Students have two classes most afternoons that are self-paced or independent work time for students.
• Advisory or MS Gathering meets four times a week, in addition to Chapel once a week.
• Daily office hours / student support time are available for students to meet with teachers as needed.
• Lunch is extended to provide community connection time for affinity groups, book clubs, and other shared interests.

Upper School

The Upper School schedule during continuous learning includes:

• Consistent start time: On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, school will begin at 8:30 a.m. (all times noted in Pacific Time) with a synchronous class for all students. On Wednesdays, students will report to synchronous Advisory at 8:30 a.m., followed by Chapel, Activities, Affinity Group, and Club meeting time, and Office Hours for one-on-one work with teachers.
• Balanced class time: On Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, the school day will begin with three 40-minute “Focus Classes,” with a short break between each. These sessions are synchronous for all students, except those in Continuous Learning Academy (our residential students in time zones other than Pacific), who watch the recordings of these sessions. The three morning classes will rotate each week.
• Extended learning: Each morning Focus Class has an accompanying afternoon 60-minute “Studio Class.” Teachers use Studio Classes for guided application and coaching, small-group discussions, student collaborative work, or asynchronous assignment support.
• Application and practice: In addition to class time (200 minutes), teachers can assign up to 90 minutes of out-of-class work per week.
• Community and wellness: Each day, students have a significant lunch block in order to get a break, meet with Affinity Groups or Clubs, and socialize remotely. This time can also be used for important community events like Gathering or performances.
• Interest-based exploration: All students will participate in Activities every Wednesday. Seniors will have the option to use this time to work on their college applications and get support from the College Counseling Office.

Students are expected to “check-in” to all of their synchronous classes and attendance will be taken. For asynchronous classes, especially in the Middle and Upper Schools, “attendance” is determined by a student’s submitting on time the work that is required during that block of time.

Middle School

Middle School students will receive feedback from teachers under the new assessment and feedback model that focuses on progress in skill building rather than traditional grades. This is a tool the Middle School has been planning to roll out in the 2020–21 school year for the past several years, unrelated to the campus closure.

Upper School

Progress for students in the Upper School will be reported through a letter grading system as outlined in the Grading Practices section of the Upper School Curriculum Guide. All students in grades 10-12 will receive summative letter grades all four quarters. All 9th graders will be graded on a P/NR (pass/no record, which indicates that no record will appear on the external transcript) basis for all subjects in the fall semester. Beginning in the spring semester, 9th graders will receive letter grades in all their classes.

In the event that the conditions of the pandemic worsen significantly during the fall, it is possible that an alternative grading policy (P/NR for all classes) could be mandated for all subjects, as was the case in the spring of 2020.

Divisional Technology Coordinators will provide tech support throughout Continuous Learning for students and families to problem solve and troubleshoot any difficulties with devices or tech tools.

All three divisions have been  implementing Limited In-Person Instruction. Regulated by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE), this opportunity allows us to bring a limited number of students to the campus in a controlled fashion for social-emotional support, building relationships between teachers and students, and for academic coursework not easily replicated online (e.g., science labs). The guidelines issued by the ODE apply to all public and private schools during Continuous (distance) Learning, include the following parameters:

• Students’ time on site is limited to no more than two consecutive hours per day.
• Students must wear masks, physically distance at all times, and adhere to all other OES and state regulations, including completing a health-screening prior to coming to campus.
• Students must be placed in cohorts of no more than twenty  students.
• Students are limited to participating in no more than two Limited In-Person Instruction cohorts in a given week.

We are all delighted to see students on campus and in person, even if it is only for a short time and only occasionally. At this point we are holding all limited in-person learning sessions outside (with a few small exceptions) to reduce the chance of virus transmission. If your student has yet to join us, we look forward to welcoming them to campus soon.

Yes, all public and private schools must follow the ODE’s regulations on Limited In-Person Instruction. We are aware that some schools’ approaches are different from our interpretation of the rules. As a result, we recently requested and received follow-up guidance from the ODE confirming that our understanding of Limited In-Person Instruction is consistent with their intentions.

We see a lot of potential in students working in small groups together in the community, but they will have to be within the governor’s guidelines (number of people allowed to gather together, masking, social distancing, etc.) Additionally, one of our COVID-19 Response Plan Guiding Principles is Inclusion and Access, and we ask that issues of equity, inclusion/exclusion, learning differences, and other student needs be taken into account as community members consider developing pods.

Click here for more information about learning pods via video from Associate Head of School Peter Kraft.

In both the Red and Yellow Campus Operational Levels, Upper School students have been assigned to either the Green or Blue Reduced Density Group (RDG). Once we reach the Yellow Campus Operational Level, students will attend school on days specified for the Blue or Green groups. Each student who returns to campus will also be a member of several additional, smaller RDGs, one for each class taken. These RDGs will remain stable and will not mix during other times, such as lunch or Activity. Some classes include students from multiple grades, but they are still considered a single RDG. To limit the total number of people in each student’s RDGs, these groups will remain stable. Students will therefore not be permitted to change RDGs except in cases where it is absolutely necessary (e.g., a class change).

Yes. While service in COVID-19 necessitates a little more creativity, it is more crucial than ever and it can be accomplished. Please contact Maria McIvor, Director of Community Engagement for information specific to your student.

We will reschedule (depending on student interest and space availability) all Upper School PE courses that require the use of the OES fitness center. If a student would like to document their participation in a sport outside of OES, such work would be graded on a Pass / Fail scale and would be subject to prior approval by the Chair of the PE Department and her designated staff members. We will waive all Be Active requirements for 2020–21 for Upper Schoolers. Students training in their respective sport for the fall (and perhaps beyond) would receive credit for being a member of an athletic team.

Yes, limited athletics are being offered. In accordance with Oregon Health Authority’s (OHA) and Oregon Department of Education’s (ODE) updated “Statewide Reopening Guidance--K-12 School Sports, “Limited Return to Play” for interscholastic athletics, during Continuous Learning, OES students grades 6-12 may train or condition in athletics. Students and coaches must wear masks during indoor and most outdoor training sessions, with limited exceptions. Students must train in small, stable cohorts of no more than ten (10) students. All OES health and safety guidelines must be followed by student-athletes and coaches.

Learn more about the OSAA's announcement and how it affects our school in this video.

For the safety of the community, we will not be able to open the fields to general community use until we reach the Green Campus Operational Level.

As with all of our academic activities, instrumental and vocal music academic classes will be held online during continuous learning until we are able to reopen campus in the Yellow Operational Level. Through the ODE-approved allowance for Limited In-Person Instruction, students may have some opportunities to create music together in person. Both band and choir carry particular risks for virus transmission and therefore require additional distancing between students and will be held outside for the foreseeable future.

Governor Brown’s announcement on November 6 of a two-week “pause” to help slow the spread of COVID-19 comes on the heels of her October 30 announcement regarding revised metrics for the reopening of Oregon’s schools. While these announcements may at first seem incongruous, both are intended to achieve the same goal: to bring Oregon’s students back to school as quickly and safely as possible.

We received a number of questions about how Governor Brown’s announcement might impact OES’s programs—specifically, Limited In-Person Instruction, Athletics training, Emergency Child Care, and our Pre-K classes. We immediately reached out to the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) for clarification, and they affirmed that the governor’s November 6 announcement has “no impact on schools’ operations.”

We are partnering closely with local public health officials and they will provide support and direction for managing the many COVID-19 related scenarios that might impact our school community. If you or your student was possibly exposed to someone on campus who has tested positive for, or who has been designated as a presumptive case of, COVID-19, you will receive an email and follow-up call with instructions for what actions to take. The daily health screenings we are requiring, as well as our tracking of cohort groups, will enable us to conduct contact tracing. To protect individuals’ personal health information, we will not release the identity of the positive or presumptive case.

Whether fully on campus, or in the hybrid state, we have discussed testing, individually and pooled, with our medical advisors and testing providers. Testing will be recommended for students and employees who have had close contact (closer than six feet for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24 hour period) with someone diagnosed to have COVID-19. The school will arrange for testing in this situation for boarding students. Someone with this exposure will be able to return to campus 14 days after exposure if they have had no symptoms in the last 72 hours. At present, the Oregon Health Authority does not recommend asymptomatic surveillance testing for schools because of its limited utility; isolation and quarantine have been found to be more effective strategies in congregate settings. However, we will continue to investigate the utility of asymptomatic testing within our community and may implement a testing program in the future.

Click here for an informational video about testing practices from Associate Head of School Peter Kraft.

Yes, daily health screening will be a requirement for anyone coming to campus in the Yellow Campus Operational Level. We are purchasing a new software application that parents, employees, and visitors will use for health reporting while in the Yellow Campus Operational Level and possibly beyond.

Scroll to page 10 of the OES COVID-19 Response Plan for more information about testing and screening.

In the Yellow Campus Operational Level, the State requirement is that the maximum size of a student's overlapping RDGs (what the State calls cohorts) is 100. We will be able to keep the groups well under this maximum. In the Lower School, the RDGs will normally be 13 or 14 students. In the Middle School, each class will be an RDG of 18 students, and each student will have a number of RDGs, although there will be a lot of duplication of students from group to group, so the anticipated total of academic RDGs is 50 or fewer. The Upper School will be similar to the Middle School, but the individual RDGs will be about 10 students. Students may be a part of other RDGs, for example a bus route or Extension RDG.

We intend to run buses if at all possible while in the Yellow Operational Level. We will send out a survey when and as we approach the Yellow Campus Operational Level that will include questions about interest in bus service. Riders will need to sign up for annual service so we can create stable groups; we won't be able to accommodate occasional riders. Students will be assigned seats and we will have one occupant per seat. Buses will be cleaned after each run. We will pick up students from multiple divisions on all routes, so we will have a plan to care for students who will need to arrive a little early because of staggered divisional start times.

In the Yellow Campus Operational Level, and into the future, food service will be modified to fit safety standards. We are working with Bon Appetit and our Facilities team to update sanitization protocols and the areas in which our students eat. Bon Appetit will change dining services, as well, to fit new staggered scheduling and dining areas.

When we return to in-person learning, students will eat lunches in small Reduced Density Groups (cohorts). There, they will be physically distanced (at least 6' apart with 35 sq. feet of space per person) and may remove their masks to eat.

Frequent gentle reminders will be the basic approach during the yellow operational level and into the future. We have had good success in our Pre-K and Emergency Childcare for Essential Workers programs in having children comply with the mask requirement. And if teachers can find a way to make it fun, even better!

OES will not offer regular Extension while the campus is closed. We have received authorization to provide limited on-campus Emergency Child Care for Essential Workers (ECCEW) in grades K–5. That program began on September 9.

We are offering a number of private music lessons online and hope to offer other remote Extension opportunities in the future and as staffing allows. Stay tuned for more information.

Classroom-Based Learning: Campus is open or partially open and learning is done in the classroom, even if some work is also done at home.

Continuous Learning: All learning is done entirely outside of school due to campus closure.

Reduced Density Group (RDG): The dividing of students in each division into smaller groups (a.k.a. cohorts).

Multi-Layered Approach to safety and wellness: Describes the many ways (see graphic below) that we are working to ensure students' and adults' health.