As nearly two years have passed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, local schools have continued to shift their COVID protocols in order to best respond to the pandemic.

However, even with high case numbers in King County and in the community, two of Vashon’s private schools, Harbor School and Vashon Green School, have experienced zero COVID cases on their campuses.

Harbor School

According to Harbor School’s Head of School Teri Rutledge, Harbor School has adopted many protocols in order to protect students, faculty and staff during the ongoing pandemic.

Harbor School, which currently has about 75 students enrolled in grades kindergarten to eighth grade, does weekly COVID-19 testing on campus each Monday morning. Students, faculty and other adults who will be on campus are all tested each week.

In addition, temperatures of students are also checked each morning. Students at the school are also wearing masks, and encouraged (though not required) to wear KN95 or KF94 masks. Students also take mask breaks outside, and all eating and drinking is done outdoors as well. Classes such as music and P.E. are also currently being held outdoors as part of the school’s COVID protocols.

“If something can be done well outside, we’re using the outside,” said Rutledge. However, she said, more classic, core curriculum is still taught indoors.

Harbor School students are also in “cohorts” that they stay with while indoors, and they do not mix with other cohorts while indoors. The largest cohort at the school has about 16 to 17 students.

Rutledge said that Harbor School’s COVID policies align with the guidelines published by both the Washington State Department of Health and the Washington State Office of Public Instruction.

“They provide pretty clear protocols, like ‘if a kid gets symptoms at school or a kid is exposed to COVID or a student has COVID,’” said Rutledge. “…We don’t have stricter guidelines than what the Department of Health has put out there.”

Rutledge also credits the families of her students, as well as the small size of Harbor School, in keeping COVID off campus.

“Our families are voluntarily going beyond,” said Rutledge. “…if their family has been exposed, they know their older child was a close contact, then they’ll also keep their younger kid home until they all get a COVID test. So, we’ve had families really voluntarily going beyond those minimum requirements, which has been I think part of why we haven’t had cases on our campus.”

Rutledge has also had instances where Harbor School students had COVID over winter break related to travel, but stayed home until they were well and able to return to school.

“So when I say we haven’t had COVID cases, I don’t mean that no Harbor School students have had COVID, I mean that they haven’t been on campus with it and exposed anybody,” said Rutledge. “I haven’t had to do contact tracing yet.”

Vashon Green School

Currently, 17 students ages 6 to 11 are enrolled in Vashon Green School. Like Harbor School, Vashon Green School has also had zero COVID cases on campus.

Dana Schuerholz, Vashon Green School’s lead instructor, said one of the biggest shifts the school has made during the pandemic was to go “100% outdoors,” and attributes this change to what has helped kept her students well.

“We’ve had to completely rethink,” said Schuerholz. “We were doing a lot of stuff outdoors before, but we certainly had some warm, cozy inside spaces that we used to utilize every day, especially in the wintertime.”

In moving the classroom outside, Schuerholz said the school needed to create new structures that provided cover from the rain, but had open walls to allow for plenty of air flow. New challenges also arose with being completely outdoors, such as making sure students had adequate gear that would keep them comfortable throughout the duration of the school day.

Students wear masks, and are able to take their masks off in spaces such as the “stump circle,” where tree stumps are far enough apart for children to sit together with masks taken off. However, said Schuerholz, as different variants have presented, the school has tightened their policies “depending on what’s going on.”

Schuerholz also credits the Vashon Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) as Vashon Green School’s “most important ally” throughout the pandemic.

Vashon Green School also has a medical advisory council, including Dr. Lydia Aguilar, Dr. Zack Miller, and Dr. Lisa Price. Miller and Aguilar are also part of the MRC and regularly advise people who reach out with questions from the community.

“As a community, we’re just all really trying to keep each other well and safe,” said Schuerholz. “It’s been amazing to be able to reach out sometimes a couple times a day to our medical advisory support council…and get some answers back that are based in science.”

Vashon Green School is also not currently following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) new recommendations for isolation and quarantine periods. While the CDC currently recommends a five day isolation period after exposure, Vashon Green School is continuing to follow a ten day isolation period.

While there have been no COVID cases on campus, said Schuerholz, some Vashon Green School students were exposed to COVID in settings outside of school but were quarantined at home before their return to the classroom.

“If someone has an exposure, even if they’re not symptomatic, we require that they stay home, that they get tested, [and] that they have a PCR test— not just an antigen test,” said Schuerholz. “Our protocols tend to be on the conservative side, and that’s been part of our success.:

Pandemic’s challenges for educators

Both Rutledge and Schuerholz admit that the pandemic has brought about unique challenges for them as educators.

“I think the uncertainty of the world right now, that we’re in the midst of a pandemic but really what it is we’re in the midst of climate change, ” said Schuerholz.

“There will be other challenges, and I think climate change insists that educational programs [and] institutions…are constantly responding and adapting,” said Schuerholz. “It’s the important work of educators. So, what’s challenging is that probably for as long I’ll keep teaching, I think that the evolution of education is the important work of all educators now. That it’s not just about teaching, but it’s about really thinking about ‘what is education for?’”

Rutledge said the pandemic has also brought up several new challenges for educators, with one example supporting the social-emotional needs of students. Over the last couple of years Rutledge has noticed higher instances of depression and anxiety in her students—a challenge that Rutledge said people are seeing in schools often now.

“You have to be so intentional about how you’re building connection and how you’re making sure the kids feel seen and supported with sort of limited circumstances,” said Rutledge.

She also added that the pandemic has added a new layer to educators’ roles in schools. For instance—Rutledge said she never expected she would apply for a CLIA waiver to run a medical testing site at Harbor School when she took her job as Head of School.

“There’s a learning curve,” said Rutledge. “…You’re learning to manage things that haven’t typically been part of the job. Everybody wants to rise to the occasion and do their best, but it changed what we’re doing in schools.”