As the Doors Open

Director Vince Durnan shares appreciation for families who've eased the gradual return to campus by reporting their students' health screening information as well as reminders about afternoon dismissal, USN's Commitment to Community, and other regular school services we plan to resume in October.
Our gradual and incremental approach to restarting on campus continues as I type. Abundant thanks to everyone here and at home who has contorted schedules, created new routines, reinvented familiar school patterns, and generally made room for our efforts to get things as right as they can possibly be. Next week we’ll be here K-8 inclusive, and the following week we’ll flip the big After School switch and also start welcoming High Schoolers. A few updates and requests:
 
The Magnus Mobile app daily screener participation numbers grow daily. It’s especially helpful for families to habituate getting it done even before their child’s grade has resumed in person. And for those grades already here, we’re hovering in the 95%+ completion zone, requiring relatively few calls home—a big help for Division offices. Truth be told, we absolutely need adherence to this task if we want to get students in the building each morning without substantial delays. Once we’re all getting it done, we won’t need to stop and confirm visually upon arrival—we’ll just confirm in the office. And I’ll just be deployed to personally call the uncompliant, few though they likely will be. This situation is one of those times when the intended behavior will bring its own rewards.
 
Next, having figured out arrival, we should talk about departure. Please look for guidance, especially next week, about departure windows from LS and MS. Given that we’re a week away from After School and still only phasing in athletic practices, car lines can get very long. My request would be to target the times identified for your child’s grade and to avoid the temptation to arrive extra early — I am sure your great parent credentials are strong enough already. Our lots lack the capacity to accommodate folks well in advance for long spans of time.
 
Sandwiched between the getting here and leaving, program offerings have been pretty remarkable to watch. I’ll try to share a little window on that work via a campus tour during Tuesday morning coffee. Prepare to see lots of plexiglass and determined teachers and students who really get it when it comes to masks. In the broadest sense, we are learning—and in a fundamental way, it’s different, more mitigated as the grade number gets higher, as our HS students will see when it’s their turn.
 
The reason I haven’t shared updates on pooled saliva testing is that I’m waiting for them too. Research studies need approval and careful organization. The good news is that the project proposed to us a few weeks ago is gaining on both counts, on an accelerated timetable, and as soon as there’s a green light, you’ll hear from us, and I know you’ll be ready. It’s a compelling and significant idea.
 
Now here’s my big ask, broader in nature: As we return, the implications of our choices away from campus loom larger and larger. In virtually every COVID-19 incidence I hear described by other schools in town, transmission happened in the wider community, then was carried, however unintentionally, through the schoolhouse door. Take a moment to renew your Commitment to Community, balancing your risk-minimizing choices to include USN, to resolve to do your part. One of the many reasons I’ve come to dread social media is the regular display of poorly chosen actions by a comparatively few constituents. Suffice to say, if we want to be in school, we need to make that clear by our decisions away from campus. Household by household, we can get this right. And if I can help in any way, just call. Really, I’m in.
 
Past all that, we’re still organizing morning shuttle routes, to start in a couple weeks complete with careful guidelines. And we’ll offer box lunch options from SAGE Dining, a few options each day ordered a week in advance, at about that same time. Specifics are on pages 13 and 17 of Responsible Restart: USN's Back-to-School Guide, and look for more next week. In the meantime, let’s appreciate one another and distance traveled.
 
Working the plan,
Vince Durnan
Director
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University School of Nashville models the best educational practices. In an environment that represents the cultural and ethnic composition of Metropolitan Nashville, USN fosters each student’s intellectual, artistic, and athletic potential, valuing and inspiring integrity, creative expression, a love of learning, and the pursuit of excellence.