Frequently Asked Questions

Campus-Based Instruction (CBI) is what many people refer to as "hybrid learning." The reason we use the term CBI is that it looks very different at each divisional level. In the Middle School, the goal is to get two grades on campus full-time each week, with the third being off site for continuous learning (remote learning). In the Upper School, we are dividing the division in half so that each student is on campus two days per week. In the Lower School, we are hoping to eventually have all students in grades Pre-K-5 on campus daily. The reasons for the different approaches is due to two things: (1) the fact that all of the state guidelines--social distancing; 35' square feet per student; cohorts as small as we can make them and no more than 100--and thus we cannot have all of the students on campus at the same time; and (2) the different developmental and learning needs of elementary, middle, and high school students.

For those who need to remain in continuous learning, we understand. While many of our resources need to shift to Campus-Based Instruction in order to have more in person instruction, the remote, continuous learning experience will most certainly look different than before. That said, we will do all we can to support our students and teachers who need to remain off campus. The remote learning style will vary by division. Teaching our younger students remotely will require more independent work and individual tutoring with specialists and assistants. This, too, will continue to evolve as we embark on delivering the best education we can, both on campus and off. If your child is struggling or needs more support at any point, please let us know.

This could happen in consultation with local public health authorities if we start to see active spread of COVID-19 within the OES community.

This could happen in consultation with local public health authorities if we see such an improvement in local community metrics that they fall below 50 cases per 100,000 for 14 days and if there is no spread within our own school community. While we expect to be wearing face coverings and have basic safety prevention practices in place on our campus for the foreseeable future, we look forward to welcoming more and more people on campus as time goes on.

The campus is only open to people currently engaged in OES programming. For the safety of our employees and staff, we aren’t able to allow for parent drop-ins as this time and all buildings and fields are closed to the public.

It is our greatest hope that we will be able to welcome all students back to campus for full-time campus-based instruction in September. However, since we have no way of knowing whether the virus will take a surprising turn, or whether all children will have access to a vaccine by late summer, we cannot know for certain whether this will be possible. We expect that some measures to reduce the spread of the virus, (such as wearing masks), will remain into the 2021-22 school year. 

Beginning Years students--first grade, kindergarten, and primary--returned to campus in late January for their instruction. The plan is to slowly, but steadily integrate grades two through five into the Lower School in February and March, beginning with the younger students first.

We will be starting on February 16 (sixth grade), 17 (eighth grade), and 18 (seventh grade) to re-implement the In-person Learning model that we used last fall to bring students on campus for two hours at a time, all outdoors, to experience two different classes, one or two times a week. Students will be in smaller cohort sizes, physically distanced, and wearing masks. We are working on staffing for those days and will be able to tell students soon which subjects to expect when. Depending on Covid metrics, we will either continue with this model or graduate to larger group sizes for longer periods of time and slowly work our way up to two grades on campus at a time for full days and weeks.

Students in grades nine through 12 will begin Campus-Based Instruction in small groups starting in mid-February, with full hybrid, campus-based instruction by spring break. The reason grades nine through 12 are returning to campus in smaller cohorts is due to research that shows them to be more likely than younger students to transmit the disease to others.

Washington County approved our opening of the dorms to students on January 23 with health and safety measures. We currently have eight boarding students in residence, and anticipate another two dozen joining us in late March after spring break. The boarding students are confined to campus. Our Continuous Learning Academy for overseas boarding students who are not able to return or want to remain remote will continue through the second semester.  

Parents can learn the details of what to expect in the daily schedules by attending parent Zoom meetings and reading emails from each division head.

• Health and Safety
  • Social-emotional & physical well being
• Optimized Learning
  • Rigorous training and a variety of modes, tools, and approaches
• Community and Responsibility
  • Relationship building, community connection, and support
• Inclusion and Access
  • Equity of access, support, and experience

Because we draw students and employees from Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas Counties we consider the metrics from all three counties.

We use this map from the Oregon Health Authority to monitor the Current Risk Level by county.

We use this chart to review the Oregon Department of Education’s Advisory Metrics for Returning to 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 is 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. 

• Revised and tightened “Community Agreements.”
• School buildings closed to parents and visitors.
• Masks, distancing, hand hygiene, protocols.
• Staggered drop off and pick up.
• No busing or extension.
• No lockers or drinking fountains.
• Sack lunches (from home or Bon Appetit).
• Dramatically decreased movement and freedoms for students and adults.
• Continuous Learning will be different when we pivot to more Classroom-Based Instruction.

As stated in the COVID-19 Acknowledgement of Risks and OES Community Agreements, 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.

Families will be required to complete a health screening for their students each morning prior to coming to campus. To protect our community, it is imperative that students remain at home if they have any symptoms of illness. As an extra precaution, we are also asking for students to remain at home if anyone in their family is experiencing any symptoms. We will request that the ill student and any siblings who attend OES be tested for COVID-19, and receive a negative test, before returning to campus.

If a student or employee has a household member who tests positive for COVID-19, or is assessed to be a close contact of someone who has tested positive, the student or employee must quarantine at home for 14 days. Learn more from the Oregon Department of Education.

If anyone in your family is diagnosed with COVID, whether your student has been on campus recently or not, please inform our COVID Response Coordinator Tna Meyerhoff at meyerhoffc@oes.edu so that we can manage the necessary contact tracing measures with Washington County. There is no shame in becoming ill from this contagious virus and we will protect your privacy when reporting by notifying the necessary parties only that they have been exposed.

If a student or employee is exposed to someone with a confirmed or presumptive case of COVID-19, that individual must quarantine at home for 14 days.

If you believe your student has been exposed to the virus, please contact our school nurse at 503-416-9300 or nurse@oes.edu.

We have made many upgrades to our filtration system to prioritize fresh air to flow through our buildings. The HVAC system in the Lower School already does this naturally. In our other campus buildings, we have found ways to override the controls to pull in more fresh air. We have also added several portable filtration systems for rooms with less ventilation. Fresh air is one of the important components to decreasing the risk of spreading the virus. We will also move classes and activities outside whenever possible.

We are deeply grateful that our employees have been eligible to become vaccinated against COVID-19. However, we do not anticipate changing any of our practices until a great majority of people—students included—have been vaccinated. Vaccination is just another layer in our risk-mitigation strategy, and those who are vaccinated are expected to follow the same rules as those who are not. Per guidance from the OHA, though, people who are fully vaccinated (e.g. two weeks past their final dose of the vaccine) do not need to quarantine post exposure or post travel.

As we began communicating our plan to bring students to campus on a more regular basis, we learned more about those with underlying health conditions and family situations that prevent community members from returning to campus at this time. This is one of the many ways in which the information we are working with continues to change. It is our responsibility to accommodate employee needs and adjust accordingly. At the same time, families have made their own decisions and communicated whether or not they will be returning to campus. This reality has shown that we will not get close to school as normal until our faculty has the opportunity to be fully vaccinated. 

We are collaborating with our local public health authority and exploring every avenue to get our faculty and staff vaccinated as quickly as possible. We are making great progress in getting our employees vaccinated.

It's not yet known how much a vaccinated individual can carry and transmit the virus, but guidance from OHA indicates that the risk is very low. If everyone continues to follow rules of wearing masks and keeping distance from people outside of your households, you should be able to start spending time again with older relatives who are fully vaccinated, with low risk to you or for them.

We have a contract with NW Mobile Testing to work with our dorm community resulting in everyone being tested 1x/week. By early March, we will be offering rapid testing for students or employees who are symptomatic or believe they may have been exposed to the virus.

OES can also provide testing to individuals who fall ill while on campus or may have been exposed through their cohort. If you cannot get one from your primary care provider, we have noticed that many Walgreens stores are offering more than one kind of free, drive-through, COVID tests.

Our wonderful food service, Bon Appetit, is working to ramp up their ability to make many hundreds of sack lunches for us each day within the confines of limited space. They are providing lunches for all LS students who want them (students may also bring a lunch from home), and will begin offering sack lunches to MS and then US students in the weeks following spring break. For the first few weeks of CBI, MS and US students will need to bring their own sack lunches and OES will provide snacks. (MS and US students may choose to continue to bring their own lunch for the remainder of this school year.) Please remember we are a nut-aware campus; out of respect for those in our community with severe peanut and tree nut allergies, please do not send tree nut or peanut products for lunches or snacks.

Our community agreements were recently revised particularly with this sort of need in mind - recognizing that people need to carpool, share childcare, etc. If students are in the same cohort, they absolutely can carpool together. We do advise that people wear masks and drive with the windows open unless they are driving with people from their household pod.

COVID-19 spreads mainly from person to person through respiratory droplets. Respiratory droplets travel into the air when you cough, sneeze, talk, shout, or sing. These droplets can then land in the mouths or noses of people who are near you or they may breathe these droplets in. Masks are a simple barrier to help prevent your respiratory droplets from reaching others. Studies show that masks reduce the spray of droplets when worn over the nose and mouth. Learn more from the CDC about the best mask for you and your children.

Due to the challenges of supervision and cohorting, we are unfortunately unable to provide any busing services to and from campus at this time. If this is your only impediment for your student returning to campus, please contact Transportation Administrative Assistant Robbi Garvin at garvinr@oes.edu.

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.

All individuals will be required to complete a temperature check and COVID-19 questionnaire prior to coming to the OES campus. Please fill out the division-specific health screening form below:

Pre-K & ECCEW Daily Health Screening Form

Lower School Student Daily Health Screening Form

Middle School Student Health Screening Form

Upper School Student Health Screening Form

The states of Oregon, Washington, and California urge against non-essential out-of-state travel in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and its variants.

• If you choose to travel despite this advisory, we ask that you carefully consider the risks associated with your actions and activities, and make decisions to minimize exposure.
• If you travel by car with household members, either within or outside of Oregon, and adhere to all standard safety protocols,  OES will not require a post-travel quarantine.

If your student does any of the following:

• Travels by air, bus, or train
• Travels outside the United States
• Travels on a cruise ship

They must do one of the following before returning to campus:

• Quarantine at home for 10 days. If they have not experienced any symptoms and have not been exposed to anyone with COVID-19 in the past two weeks, they may return to school.
• Quarantine at home for seven days and take a test for COVID-19 within 48 hours of the end of the seven days. If their test result is negative, and they have not experienced any symptoms and have not been exposed to anyone with COVID-19 in the past two weeks, please submit the test result to the division office and our student(s) will be allowed to return to school after completing the seven day quarantine.

We ask that you minimize the spread of COVID-19 through you and your student’s actions and activities outside of OES. If your student engages in activities that are considered high-risk for transmitting COVID-19, your child will quarantine according to the rules outlined above for travel.

• The guidance from the state of Oregon recommends that, while the metro-area counties fall in the high or extreme risk categories, (our level as of 2-5-21) each household should limit social indoor and outdoor gathering sizes to 2 households with a maximum of 6 people total. (Please refer to current risk levels by county here.)
• Please limit household contacts. This is an important factor in reducing the spread of COVID-19, and having your student(s) in school on campus creates a large pool of contacts for your family. Please accept the responsibility you have chosen by sending your student(s) to school during the pandemic, and commit to the following:
  • You will maintain a consistent and limited “bubble” of people for our household.
  • Your established household (bubble) will not engage in indoor gatherings with children or families outside of your students’ OES cohort.
  • Your household will not attend indoor gatherings of more than 10 people.
  • Your student(s) will neither host nor attend sleepovers with anyone outside of your household.
  • You may engage with a broader range of people when you are outside and wearing a mask, but you must commit to always wear a mask and maintain physical distance in these circumstances.

Yes, limited athletics are being offered. Updated sports schedules are available here.

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.

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.

We have been running limited on-campus Emergency Child Care for Essential Workers (ECCEW) in grades K–5. ECCEW for a grade closes when CBI for that grade begins.

OES will not offer regular Extension during the 2020-21 school year due to the complications of maintaining stable cohorts. We are offering a number of online private music lessons and more and hope to offer other remote Extension opportunities in the future and as staffing allows. Stay tuned for more information.