COVID 19 Resources for Families

A video showing Principal Nicole Mack and her son Jaylen doing his first test for COVID-19. All Families at Conservatory Lab have the opportunity to participate in Pooled Testing.

CONSERVATORY LAB CHARTER SCHOOL‘S COVID RESPONSE PLAN

The Conservatory Lab Charter School is taking a multi-layered approach to student and staff safety during this most challenging of times.  This approach includes daily wellness checks of staff and students, compliance with DESE masking guidelines, hand sanitizing stations, daily cleaning, and disinfecting of high touch areas, as well as nightly disinfecting and defogging of all classrooms and offices.  Additionally, we have ongoing maintenance to our HVAC systems including state of the art filters

We have instituted free, weekly, on-site COVID testing for all students and faculty.  Each week, after we receive and review the test results, we comply with all safety guidance as well as communicate any positive test results with families.  Our first responsibility is to keep our students and faculty safe. We have been planning for various scenarios and we have a comprehensive plan in place that includes, 1:1 contact tracing, determining if there were close contacts involved, communicating with the full community, and supporting any and all affected individuals.

DESE has instituted the COVID Test and Stay program for the 21-22 school year. The Conservatory Lab will be participating in the DESE Test and Stay program. Under this program there is no need for the entire class or staff to quarantine if an asymptomatic individual had close contact with a confirmed Covid19 exposure.  The Test and Stay program will allow an asymptomatic close contact individual to remain in school if they receive an individual rapid antigen test which is negative. DESE Testing And Stay

In the event a student tests positive during the weekly Covid safety checks the student who tested positive will remain home to quarantine in accordance with the DESE guidelines. Under this program, when a student tests positive, all students and staff who are considered a close contacts will be rapid tested for the 7 days following the positive case in the class. 

We are grateful to our families for their continued efforts to keep students home at the first sign of symptoms.

Some of the symptoms of these viruses include headache, sore throat, cough, sneezing, vomiting, diarrhea, and body aches. Students who have any of these symptoms or have a fever should NOT come to school. If your child has these symptoms they must stay home and you should consult your child’s pediatrician to find out if a COVID-19 test is necessary. 

Please be sure to keep your child at home until they are feeling better and are fever free for 24 hours without fever medication (examples are Tylenol or Motrin). If your child’s symptoms do not improve, please call your child’s medical provider. 

  • If your child is sent home, they may return to school:
    • After 24 hours at home. They may not come back to school the next day.
    • Have a NEGATIVE COVID-19 test – if sent home because of symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
    • FEVER: Child must be fever free without medication for 24 hours AND NEGATIVE COVID-19 test
    • VOMIT: No upset stomach or vomit for 24 hours AND NEGATIVE COVID-19 test
    • DIARRHEA: Regular stool for 24 hours AND NEGATIVE COVID-19 test

These measures, taken in combination, greatly reduce the risk of transmission, and we believe that all of these actions can play a large part in minimizing the number of cases within our school community despite the rise in the number of cases around the city. We remain completely committed to our daily Wellness Checks and weekly COVID testing program for staff and students because it is designed to identify and remove an asymptomatic individual from the school before any transmission occurs. 

We want to thank the CLCS community’s vigilance to these measures, and the testing program that we have in place.  If you have not yet signed up your child for weekly safety COVID testing, we strongly encourage all families to commit to the safety of all students and staff by participating in the weekly safety COVID testing. We will continue to be vigilant in adhering to all of the protocols that have been put in place and working aggressively, and as a community, to manage transmission.      

We are committed to continuous communication with and support of our families.  We will continue to update you with all of our communications.  

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to our school nurse, Ms. Carius at CCarius@conservatorylab.org (LOWER) and kbrown@conservatorylab.org (UPPER). 

Please document your child’s absence with a note from you or your doctor. You may call the front desk with any questions. 

Lower School: (617) 208 – 6200                     Upper School: (617) 254 – 8904 

School Communications Regarding Conservatory Lab Charter School’s Response to COVID 19


RESOURCES

1. Family Resource CLCS Online Learning Platforms

Family Resources can be found here.  The CLCS Online Learning Platforms resource is just a list of options that we currently have available. As additional options are vetted by our teachers, we will add them to the document.

2. Food Access for Boston Students

BPS will continue to provide free breakfast and lunch meals to all Boston students. This includes our community based early childhood provider students, charters, Metco, and Catholic parochial schools. BPS will distribute the meals at several dozen locations throughout the City of Boston beginning on Tuesday, March 17. A variety of packaged meal options will be available for pick-up Monday – Friday from 8:30 am – 11:30 am. Visit www.bostonpublicschools.org/coronavirus for the full list. No child will be turned away.

Additionally, the City of Boston in partnership with Project Bread, YMCA of Greater Boston, Boston Centers for Youth and Families, and other community organizations will also be providing free meals to school-aged children at various locations and times across the city. Click here to view all the current meal locations and times. More locations will become available over the coming week.

The City of Boston has created pick up sites available throughout the city for families to access food. This is similar to the plan used during summer recess. You may review the map of available sites and share with families that you know may be in greatest need. This information will be sent out to all families.

3. Boston Internet Access

  • Comcast is offering free service during this time that everyone needs access to digital information. Please see information from Comcast below (you may contact them directly to arrange service) or read their corporate announcement here:
  • Xfinity WiFi Free For Everyone: Xfinity WiFi hotspots across the country will be available to anyone who needs them for free – including non-Xfinity Internet subscribers. For a map of Xfinity WiFi hotspots, visit www.xfinity.com/wifi. Once at a hotspot, consumers should select the “xfinitywifi” network name in the list of available hotspots and then launch a browser.
  • Pausing Our Data Plan: With so many people working and educating from home, we want our customers to access the internet without thinking about data plans. While the vast majority of our customers do not come close to using 1TB of data in a month, we are pausing our data plans for 60 days giving all customers Unlimited data for no additional charge.
  • No Disconnects or Late Fees: We will not disconnect a customer’s internet service or assess late fees if they contact us and let us know that they can’t pay their bills during this period. Our care teams will be available to offer flexible payment options and can help find other solutions.
  • Internet Essentials Free to New Customers: As announced yesterday, it’s even easier for low-income families who live in a Comcast service area to sign-up for Internet Essentials, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program. New customers will receive 60 days of complimentary Internet Essentials service, which is normally available to all qualified low-income households for $9.95/month. Additionally, for all new and existing Internet Essentials customers, the speed of the program’s Internet service was increased to 25 Mbps downstream and 3 Mbps upstream. That increase will go into effect for no additional fee and it will become the new base speed for the program going forward.